


Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel The Full Story

by Lizzy100



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Action/Adventure, Buffy the Vampire Slayer References, Comfort, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Horror, Los Angeles, Sunnydale, angel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 16:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 53
Words: 53,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1785478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzy100/pseuds/Lizzy100
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here's a collection of BTVS and Angel fics that I've done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Love At First Sight

**Author's Note:**

> Just so you know, all of these are from years ago, so keep that in mind when reading this.

It was a beautiful day. Xander and Willow were strolling along, when they saw the new student. Buffy Anne Summers. Xander fell instantly in love.  
"That must be Buffy," Willow commented. "Xander, you're staring," Willow added.  
She knew that look he had on. She realized he had fallen in love with Buffy, which made her jealous. She knew it was wrong to feel that way when they hadn't met her, and he hadn't even made a move on her. Yet. They walked inside Sunnydale High, only to be spotted by Cordelia Chase and her clique, which everyone called The Cordettes.  
"Well, well, if it isn't the nerd and the geek," Harmony announced. "Harmony, you're delusional," Cordelia told her with a glare and a flick of her hair.  
Xander caught on that she was letting them leave, and they silently left the fuming Harmony.  
"I'm not delusional," Harmony protested, turning to her leader.  
"Rain check, Harmony." "Yes you are," she insisted.  
"Why did she do that?" Willow asked him.  
"I don't know, Wills." "Let's just go, shall we?" he replied.  
So they kept on walking down the halls of Sunnydale High.  
By their sophomore year, Buffy was friends with Xander and Willow. She was also the Sunnydale Vampire Slayer. Willow and Xander, including Giles, were the only ones that knew about the supernatural, and that she was a Slayer.  
Later that same year, Cordelia realized that she loved Xander, but she knew he and Buffy were together.  
October of that year, Buffy and Xander broke up after seeing Willow and Xander smooching in the library. Both witch and Xander were guilty after that. Buffy understood, but she never got back together with him. Instead, she and Angel got together. Cordelia took this chance to tell him how she felt about him.  
She walked up to him in the hall.  
"Xander."  
He turned to look at her after shutting his locker door.  
"Cordy."  
"I have something to tell you. Not here, though. Privately."  
She dragged him into an empty classroom and shut the door.  
"What is it that you had to say to me, but couldn't or wouldn't say in front of everybody?" he asked.  
"I love you."  
"Okay, I wasn't expecting that."  
"That's what I had to say."  
"Well, I love you, too."  
Still inches away from each other, they looked into one another's eyes.  
A moment later, they were kissing. It was filled with desire, lust, and overwhelming pleasure. They knew they were meant for each other, as they shared the moment in the kiss.  
In the middle of junior year, everyone knew about her and Xander. News travels fast in Sunnydale. You can't keep a secret without it getting out. So almost everyone now had their half. Everyone except Willow. She didn't care, though. By now, Cordelia was a part of the Scoobies. She had left the Cordettes not long ago, but she still had the attitude. Nobody ever understood Cordy and Xander. They would fight like cats and dogs, exchange insults they didn't really mean, and then kiss to make up. It was the same every single time they fought. They loved each other, though. They would forever love each other. By now, Cordy knew all about the supernatural realm.  
Graduation came and went, and Xander and Cordy were still together. Angel had broken up with Buffy and left town. And last but not least, Harmony had been turned.


	2. The Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Xander went after Cordelia when he was possessed instead of Buffy?

Characters: Buffy, Willow, Giles, the zoo keeper, hyenas, Lance, Cordelia, Kile and his friends, Principal Wood, Principal Flutie, and Herbert

Summary: What if Xander went after Cordelia when he was possessed instead of Buffy?

Pairings:  
Xan/Cor

It was a beautiful day, as the class walked around the zoo looking at the animals. Buffy, Willow, and Xander soon saw Kile and them walk into the hyena compound with Lance.  
Buffy started forward, ready to go in and fetch them.  
Xander stopped her and said, “Let me. This isn’t a job for a Slayer.” With that, he went in.  
They started to go in too, but were stopped by the zoo keeper.  
“Whoa, hold it. Are you blind, or are you just illiterate? Because hyenas are quick to prey on the weak.”  
“We were just-----“ Buffy started.  
“You’re not going in there. Anyone that does is in a world of trouble.”  
“No, no one’s going in there,” Willow chimed in.  
“Why is it off limits?” Buffy asked.  
“It’s a quarantine. These hyenas just came from Africa. So keep out. Even if they call your name.”  
“What’re you talking about?” Buffy asked.  
“A Masai tribesman once told me that hyenas understand human speech. They follow humans around by day, learning their names. At night, when the campfire dies, they call out to the person. And once they separate him”---he snapped his fingers--- “the pack devours him.”  
Kile looked around, as he led them in.  
“Cool.”  
“I don’t see any hyenas,” Lance said.  
A hyena stepped forward from the gloom of the pen, revealing a dark, almost black muzzle, full of large, pointed teeth. It growled.  
“Okay,” Lance said, scared and ready to leave. “Now we’ve seen it.”  
“It looks cute,” Rhonda said.  
“I think it looks hungry,” Kile said. He stepped away from the bars. He and Tor grabbed Lance, muscled him up the steps toward the cage.  
“Come on, spot!” Tor growled as they dragged Lance forward.  
“Supper time!”  
They held him in front of the bars. The hyena growled again, deep in its throat. Someone had a hand on the back of Lance’s head, pushing his face into the cage.  
Everyone but Lance laughed.  
“Ow!” He complained. “Stop it! That’s not funny!”  
Xander came to the rescue, pushing Lance away from them.  
Xander was eyeball to eyeball with Kile now. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own species?”  
“What, are you gonna get in my face?”  
They did a stare down, but the hyena interrupted them with a growl.  
They all looked at it in the eyes. All but Lance.  
They turned to look at him and he ran.

It was a beautiful day, as the Slayer rounded the corner of the hallway, when she heard a commotion.  
“Look out! It’s gotten loose!” Principal Flutie cried. “Stop the beast!”  
Buffy bent over and snagged the piglet, lifting it into her arms.  
The poor thing was wearing a tiny Sunnydale High football helmet with papier---noche tusks attached at the sides of his snout and had a row of green foam triangles stuck to its back, like a cartoon dinosaurus fins.  
Mr. Flutie caught up to them. “Naughty Herbert. Gave Mr. Flutie quite a scare, didn’t he?”  
He drew himself up, addressing the students crowding the hallway.  
“Students, I’d like you all to meet Herbert, our new mascot for the Sunnydale High Razorbacks!”  
This was met with a smattering of applause.  
“He’s so cute!” Buffy said.  
“He’s not cute,” Principal Flutie insisted. “He’s a fierce Razorback.”  
He pumped his fists into the air, and there was some halfhearted clapping.  
She studied the poor, over accessories pig. “He doesn’t look mean, Mr. Flutie.”  
“He’s mean, he’s ready for action.” Mr. Flutie indicated Herbert’s add-ons. “See, how are the tusks, and…a scary…Razorback.” The green fins. Now she got it.  
“You’re right. He is a fine mascot and will engender the school spirit.”  
“Well, he’s better----costs a fortune to feed him.” He bent down, spoke direction to Herbert. “Let’s get you back in your cage.” He reached for the pig, and Herbert let out a squeal. Mr. Flutie backed off, gestured her to carry the new mascot. “This way.”  
Buff led the way, the piglet oinking contently in her arms.  
Willow and Xander sat on one of the stone benches scattered around the campus, his Geometry textbook open on her lap. He had a notebook and a pencil and was jotting numbers and lines down, but not really catching on. They were a study in contrast---red-haired Willow wearing a bright orange sweater over a patterned skirt, and Xander, dark-haired and eyed, all in shades of black and gray.  
“I’m not getting this,” Xander said.  
“It’s simple, really. See, the bisector of a vertex is the line that divides that angle at that vertex into two equal parts.”  
“It’s like a big blur, all these numbers and angles.”  
“It’s the same stuff from last week. You had it down then.”  
“Why do I need to learn this?”  
“’Cause otherwise you’ll flunk Math.”  
“Explain the part where that’s bad.”  
“You remember. You fail Math, you flunk out of school, you end up being the guy at the Pizza Place that sweeps the floor and says,  
‘Hey kids, where’s the cool parties this weekend?’ We’ve been through this.”  
As she spoke, Xander rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Do you have a headache?” she asked, concerned. She touched his temple, gently, and he shook her hand away.  
“Yeah. And I think I know what’s causing it.” He snatched the book off her lap and tossed it into a nearby trash can. Smiling at his direct hit, he went on. “That’s better. Goes straight to the source of the pain.”  
“Xander---.”  
“Look, forget it, okay. I don’t get it. I won’t ever. I don’t care.” He stood suddenly, throwing his spiral notebook into Willow’s lap, and stormed away.  
As Xander walked passed Mr. Flutie, Herbert, and Buffy the pig squirmed. It got the wiglets with him being around.  
It rained later that day, while they were all in PE playing dodge-ball.  
After PE, Xander and the others, which seemed like a group now, met Willow by the lockers.  
“Xander, what’s wrong with you?” she asked.  
“I guess you’ve noticed that I’ve been different around you, lately.”  
“Yes.”  
“I think it’s because my feelings for you have been changing.”  
Her heart skipped a beat.  
“Well, we’ve been friends for such a long time that I feel like I need to tell you something. I’ve…I’ve decided to drop Geometry. So…I won’t be needing your Math help anymore. Which means I won’t have to look at your pasty face again.”  
They laughed. The group of them sounded sick to her, laughing so hard at such a mean joke. Willow’s heart sank.  
Buffy slammed her locker shut and started towards them, very upset. Cordelia had overheard, too. She excused herself from her Cordettes. She quickly came face to face with him, glaring at him with her coldest stare ever. Only she was allowed to make fun of others. No one else. Especially sweet, geeky Xander.  
“What the hell is going on, Xander?” she asked coldly.  
They continued to laugh.  
She turned to Kile and friends.  
“Get the hell out of here morons, or I will be forced to take drastic measures,” she ordered, glaring.  
They left.  
She turned back to Xan.  
“Get a hold of yourself. I’m the only one allowed to make fun of anyone. Excluding Buffy, of course. Now you need to stop this. You can’t be hurting people like that. My question to you is how you could say that to her? She’s your best friend. She cares about you. And you know that me and Buffy do, too.”  
Buffy arrived at that moment and crossed her arms.  
“Are you going to say something to me, too?”  
He just grinned at them.  
“Is something wrong with you?” Buffy commented.  
“I think it’s Giles time,” Cordelia agreed.  
“None of you are perfect. You, Buffy, with Deadboy. And then you, Cordelia, acting big and tough on the outside, but on the inside you’re weak. And you know what? It’s radiating off of you.”  
“Screw you,” she said, slapping him across the face and then walking away.  
He chuckled, as he watched her go.  
Buffy slapped him across the face and then left to go to the library to tell Giles. There had to be something in his books.  
“Giles, we have a problem. It’s Xander. He’s not himself.”  
“What’s wrong?”  
“He’s different. He’s been very mean. He’s even hanging out with the dode patrol.”  
“Xander’s taking to teasing the less fortunate?”  
“Uh-huh.”  
“There’s been a noticeable change in both clothing and demeanor?”  
“Yes.”  
“It’s devastating. He has turned into a sixteen old boy. Of course, you’ll have to kill him.”  
“Giles, I’m serious.”  
“So am I, except for the part about killing him. Testerone is the great equalizer; it turns all men into morons. He will, however, get over it.”  
“I can’t believe you of all people, are trying to scully me. There’s something supernatural at work. Get your books! Look stuff up.”  
“Look under what?”  
“I don’t know. That’s your department.”  
“The evidence you’ve presented me with is sketchy at best.”  
“He scared the pig!”  
Giles gave her a look.  
“Well, he did.”  
“Buffy, boys can be cruel. They tease, they prey on the weak. It’s a natural teen behavior pattern.”  
“What did you just say?”  
“Uh, what? Uh, they tease---“  
“They prey on the weak. I heard that somewhere. Xander has been acting totally wiggy since we went to the zoo. He and Kile and all those guys went into the hyena cage…Oh God, that laugh----“  
“Are you saying Xander’s becoming a hyena?”  
“I don’t know. Or been possessed by one. Not just Xander, all of them.”  
“Well, I certainly haven’t heard of---“  
Willow ran in very upset. “Herbert. They found him!”  
“The pig?” Buffy asked.  
“Dead. And also, eaten! Principal Flutie is freaking out.”  
Buffy looked at her Watcher.  
“Testerone, huh?”  
“What are you gonna do?” Willow asked him.  
“Get my books. Look stuff up,” he answered.  
Buffy went to go find Xander after finding that he was possessed by a hyena. She knew she had to find him. She stopped inside Principal Flutie’s office to see where Herbert had been kept. The cage was ripped opened. It looked like wild animals had attacked the cage to get him; bars torn apart. Nothing was left now except bones.  
“They’re strong.”  
Meanwhile, Xander had Cordelia in an empty classroom with the door locked.  
“Xander, what is it? Are you here to apologize or what?”  
“Hardly.”  
She heard him growl low in his throat.  
“Are you possessed or something?”  
“Score one hundred points for the bitch.”  
He started forward, like a predator would when cornering its prey.  
She backed away, as he started half circling her.  
Without warning, he grabbed her and pinned her to the floor so she was on her back staring up at him. She tried to get free, but he was too strong and had a hold of both her wrists.  
“Let me go!”  
He chuckled. “I thought you liked me.”  
“Only when you’re yourself.”  
“Look at me. I am myself.”  
She kicked him away and started forward quickly, but he grabbed her again. This time he pinned her to a wall. He sniffed her hair like an animal would. She inwardly cringed.  
“Xander, you’re not an animal. Let me go!” she yelled.  
He kept sniffing her hair.  
The door rattled, as she yelled at him.  
“Just stop it, Xander! Leave me the hell alone! Now!”  
The door opened to reveal the Slayer. The Slayer started forward quickly.  
Cor rammed a knee in his and stomped on his foot with a heel she wore. He hollered in pain and she ran from him, but stayed in the room. He turned around angrily.  
“You’re going to regret that,” he growled at the Queen C.  
“Slayer,” he greeted, looking at Buffy.  
He stalked forward, very predatory like.  
A few minutes later, he was locked up in the library cage. Buffy stayed to keep an eye on him, while the others went to the zoo. The plan was to get the pack to the hyena cage with Buffy leading them.  
Half an hour later, it all worked out. Little did they know, the zoo keeper's plan all along was to bring all of the hyenas into himself which worked.  
He had a knife to Willow’s throat, but when the spirits were drawn into him, he dropped the knife. He grabbed Willow’s head between his hands. He roared like a wild beast. He leaned toward her, baring his teeth like he meant to rip into her flesh.  
“Willow!” Xander hollered, launching himself across the room and slamming into the growling zoo keeper. They both went down, but the zoo keeper regained his footing quickly. When Xander came at him again, he swung a backhand blow that knocked him to one side.  
Buffy launched a kick at the zoo keeper's pointed jaw. She connected, hard, and he fell back. In a second he was up again, and charging her. She stopped him for a moment with a left, and when he attacked again, she grabbed his robes him over her shoulder and down into the hard stone floor. He was powerful, though. Most men would have been out cold, but he jumped up and came back for more with an animal-like growl. So she used the same trick in the other direction. Grasping the robes, turning, spinning, bringing him over her shoulder and down. Except that this time, because he was coming at her from the other way, “down” meant into the hyena pit.  
He screamed.  
Xander started to get up and Cor helped him, as he did so.  
Once he was on his feet, they hugged in a familiar embrace. Willow got to her feet, too.

The next day was another one of those days when it really became clear that summer was just around the corner. Buffy, Willow, Cor, and Xan walked across the quad.  
Buffy was enjoying the sunshine, and strange as it seemed, enjoying being with Xander. As they walked, Cor and Xan held hands.  
“I heard the Vice Principal is taking over until they can find a replacement,” Will said.  
“It shouldn’t be hard to find a new Principal,” Buffy said. “Unless they ask what happened to the last one.”  
“Okay, but I had nothing to do with that, right?” Xander asked.  
“Right,” Buffy said.  
They started up an outside staircase.  
“You only ate a pig,” Willow added.  
“I ate a pig? Was he cooked and called bacon or…” Xander put his hand to his forehead in obvious dismay. “Oh my God. I ate a pig? I mean, the who trichinosis issue aside, yuck.”  
“Well, it wasn’t really you,” Buffy assured him.  
“Well, I remember going on the field trip, and then going down in the hyena house. Next thing some guy’s holding Willow and he has a knife.”  
“You save my life,” Willow said.  
“Hey.” Xander stopped at the top of the stairs. “Nobody messes with my Willow.” He hugged her and then let go.  
“This is definitely the superior Xander,” Buffy announced.  
“Accept no substitutes.”  
“I didn’t do anything else, did I? Around you guys?” Xander asked. “Anything embarrassing?”  
“Naah,” Buffy assured him.  
“Not at all,” Willow added.  
“Come on. We’re gonna be late,” Buffy said, grabbing Willow’s hand.  
Willow looked at Xander.  
“See you at lunch.”  
“Cool.”  
He looked at his girlfriend.  
“You’ve been quiet. That’s not you at all. What’s wrong?”  
“They lied to you, Xander. You did have a part in it. They don’t want to let you know the bad parts. Come on. I’ll tell you.”  
She led him into a broom closet and turned the light on, shutting the door.  
“So, what horrible things did I do?”  
She looked up at him.  
“You were very mean to me and Willow. And let’s just say you tried our act at assault on me and Buffy.”  
“I’m sorry, Cor.”  
“It’s alright.”  
“Is there any way I can make it up to you?”  
“Yes. Kiss me.”  
“Really?”  
“Just shut up and kiss me,” she said, and they kissed each other hard, turning it into sweetness and gentleness. That kiss meant that they forgave each other. Any kiss would always mean forgiveness to them. They knew that. They probably always would.


	3. Some Assembly Required

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cordy's dead brother goes after her and she gets captured. Can the Scoobies find and save her in time? Read to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't remember what Cordy's brothers' names were, so I just added in random names for them.

It was a beautiful day at Sunnydale High. Parent teacher conferences. Cordelia Chase saw Buffy Summers and came up to her.  
“So how is it going?”  
“It?”  
“Yeah. The conferences.”  
“Not quite sure. I hope it’ll go well.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I don’t want to have to sit through mom’s lecture about grades and everything school. It’s not like I actually have a future.”  
“Right. The Slayer thing. Kinda takes a toll on a person.”  
“Why are you even here talking to me? Shouldn’t you be doing whatever you do as a Cordette or something?”  
“My parents don’t come to these things.”  
“Lucky.”  
“Yeah. I guess I am. Aren’t I?”  
“So if they don’t come, why are you here?”  
“To hang out and look at horrible, God-awful fashions. What else?”  
“I don’t know. I thought you were here trying to make small talk with me. You obviously don’t care. I’m apparently below you.”  
“Yeah. You are. But I guess I kinda do feel for you.”  
Just then, a couple guys came up to them and started taking their pictures.  
“Stop it. Just stop! No pictures!” Cordelia ordered them.  
They stopped and then left.

 

It was a dark night. Cordelia was on her way to her car. She dropped her keys. She picked them up. She heard something, so she hid in a dumpster.  
When it was silent, she got out.  
“Gross!”  
She made a face.  
She backed off, seeing an arm.  
She walked into the library the next day and sat down at the table.  
“Come again?” Buffy said.  
“What happened, Cor?” Xander asked.  
“There’s a dumpster full of body parts. It’s just gross! Who would do that? Or better yet. What would do that?”  
“Why were you by a dumpster?” Buffy asked.  
“To hide from whoever. It was dark and I heard something. So I hid. Then I get out and realize it was a dumpster with body parts. Gross! How many times can I say ew?”  
“I hear you, Cor. That just makes me sick,” Xander said.  
“Why would someone chop someone up?” Willow asked.  
Buffy shrugged at her best friend.  
Giles started setting books down on the table.  
“Research?” Buffy said.  
“Great!” Willow said.  
Willow was the only one that loved research. It was one of her most favorite things to do. She loved learning.  
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to class,” Cordelia said. She stood up, grabbing Xander’s arm. “And so are you,” she added.  
Willow, Buffy, and Giles watched them as they left hand in hand.

When Cordy was in the girl’s locker room, someone slipped a sack bag over her and kidnapped her.

 

Later that day, a note flew through the window and landed by Buffy’s elbow. She read it aloud.  
“’We have her. If you know what’s good for you, stay away or you’re next.’”  
“I think I know who it is and where they are. Xander, come with me. The rest of you stay here,” the Slayer announced.

 

Meanwhile, Cordy had just come to. She was blindfolded and tied to an autopsy table.  
“Hello?”  
It was silent.  
“Anyone there?”  
Her living younger brother and zombie older brother stood by a shelf. Her zombie brother nodded to him.  
“Yes,” her younger brother answered her, now standing by her.  
He took her blindfold off. “Don’t scream.”  
“Caleb?”  
“I’m sorry,” he apologized.  
Her zombie brother came over.  
“Jake?”  
“Don’t worry. This will only hurt a little.”  
Her younger brother stepped away.  
Jake raised an Axe to cut her head off after blindfolding her.  
When he raised it to strike, he was stopped by Buffy’s hand on his arm.  
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”  
She through him with a kick, making him crash into a shelf that had gasoline and candles on it. Caleb ran out.  
“Buffy?” Cordy called.  
“It’s me.”  
“Thank God.”  
“Xander is on his way. He’s going to get you out of here.”  
“Where’s Caleb?”  
“He split. I think I scared him off.”  
“Good.”  
Fire started, as the candles and gasoline fell to the floor. Buffy and Jake continued to fight, as the fire rose faster. She gave him a roundhouse kick. He stumbled back a few paces. He charged her. She gave him a kick to the stomach. He stumbled back again.  
As their fight continued, Xander arrived. He rolled his girlfriend out of there and then stopped outside. He untied her and took her blindfold off.  
“Are you okay?”  
“Excluding almost getting my head cut off by Jake? I’m wonderful.”  
“Great. Wouldn’t want you hurt,” he said, and then helped her to her feet.  
They kissed for a few minutes and then parted.  
In the end, Jake was killed by Buffy and everyone was okay.


	4. Threesome In A Closet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post “Bad Eggs.” What if Buffy and Xander hadn’t been the only ones to get locked in the closet? What if it had been Buffy, Cordelia, and Xander? What will happen between them? Read to find out.

When Cordelia came to, sitting up and rubbing the back of her head, she saw that she was in the closet with Xander and Buffy.  
Both were still unconscious.  
“Well that figures.”  
She stood up and looked around. There were three eggs on the floor. She looked at the shelf. There had to be something to smash the eggs with before they hatched. And there was. She grabbed a tool box and smashed the eggs with it, leaving it there.  
She knelt between her boyfriend and the Slayer. Normally, she would wake Xander up first. Not this time. They had to get out of here. And hey. Buffy was strong. She swallowed her pride and turned to the Slayer.  
“Buffy , wake up. We gotta get the hell outta here.”  
The blond groaned.  
“Come on, Buffy.”  
She slowly came to to see Cordelia looking at her.  
“Why would they put us in here?” Buffy questioned, sitting up and seeing that they were in a closet.  
“A little hint. I killed the eggs.”  
Buffy saw the tool box with smashed eggs.  
“Good. I’m gonna get us outta here.”  
The Slayer tried the door. Locked.  
Cordy knelt beside her dweeb.  
“Xander. Wake up, Xander.”  
He groaned.  
“Cordy?”  
“Who else would it be?”  
He looked up at her.  
“I don’t know. Anybody in mind?”  
“Not at all, dork.”  
He sat up.  
“We’re in the closet. Aren’t we?”  
“Yeah. And you know what that means.”  
“Danger.”  
“Doom.”  
Suddenly, they were smooching in the closet.  
Buffy slammed her fist through the door and unlocked it from the outside. She opened the door.  
She turned around to see them kissing. She rolled her eyes at the couple. She would never understand them. How people like them could fall in love. Not to mention what was up with them and closets.  
“Time to go you two.”  
They parted and got to their feet to follow Buffy, hand in hand.


	5. Faith, Hope, and Trick (alternate ending)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post “Faith Hope, and Trick.”

It was a dark night, as Buffy Anne Summers and Cordelia Chase walked into the library. They had been running from demons and vampires for their lives all night long. They had mistaken Cordelia for Faith. The monsters planned on having a night of Slayer Fest. Cordelia was half way calm now, but still freaked out, not wanting to die.  
“What do we do now?” Cordelia asked, seated on the counter beside Buffy.  
“We need to find a way to stop these guys before Homecoming ends.”  
“And how do we do that exactly?”  
“I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t exactly have a plan at the moment.”  
They set their flower wrist bands down on the counter.  
Buffy now stood in front of the doors.  
Cordelia jumped off the counter.  
“You better think of one quick, because I have a life to live.”  
“We’ll make it through this, okay? At least in time to see who won king and queen.”  
Just then, a cowboy vampire grabbed hold of the back of the Slayer’s neck, lifting her off the floor.  
“Oh, God,” Cordy said, and then rushed into the cage for a stake.  
When she came back out he had a partner with him.  
“Well, this gives a new meaning of eternal love. Doesn’t it?” she said to no one in particular.  
The vamp couple were winning, not letting the Slayer get a chance to do anything. When they heard Cordelia, they through the Slayer against a bookshelf, which fell on top of her.  
“Buffy!” she yelled, watching the scene.  
Several minutes later, they were dust. Even though she was hurting, she went to the bookshelf, for once in her life, think about someone else’s life above her own.  
After several minutes, the shelf was off her, Cordy knelt beside her, an arm around her lower stomach.  
“Buffy?”  
She felt for a pulse on the side of her neck. She then held her in her arms.  
“Can you hear me, Buffy?”  
Buffy slowly came to and looked up at her.  
“Oh, thank God,” Cordy said.  
Buffy sat up and looked to see they were gone.  
“Are you okay?” Buffy asked, looking at her, realizing she had staked them and seeing her arm around her lower stomach.  
“It’s just a little pain. I’ll be okay.”  
Buffy helped her up, as she got to her own feet.  
So together, they left to go to the Homecoming dance to see who won.  
In the end, Cordelia and Xander won Homecoming, but Cordy was nice enough to give her reward to Buffy. So everybody lived happily ever after.


	6. Lover’s Walk (1st revised version; Xander's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Xander and Cordelia were captured instead of Xander and Willow by Spike? Read to find out what happens.

It’s a dark night, as Cordelia Chase and I walk into the laboratory room at Sunnydale High. She’s my girlfriend. We’ve been dating since last year. I never would’ve thought she and I would fall in love. We have always hated each other's guts. On top of that, we’re from two different worlds. I’m poor and she’s rich. She’s as everyone but me and Willow call the Bitch of Sunnydale High. Buffy, Willow, and Oz like to tease me about dating her but I take it.  
I shut the door behind us and turn the lights on. We both notice a bowl with steam coming out of it, showing that it’s still hot.  
“She must’ve been doing her magic tricks again,” she comments.  
“Yeah,” I agree, guessing what she had been doing. An anti-love spell.  
“How much longer?”  
“I don’t know.”  
“I don’t want to be waiting all night for them.”  
“They’ll show.”  
“It better be soon.”  
In case you’re wondering, we’re here waiting for them, because we’re doing a double date. We’re going to go bowling. It’s a celebration for Buffy and Cordy getting awesome test scores for the SAT. It was Willow’s idea. Oz, me, and Buffy went along with it. I had to do some major talk to convince Cordy that it would be a wonderful idea.  
Suddenly, Spike comes in.  
“Hello, kiddies,” he greets. Then, without warning, he attacks us. We try to fight him off, but we don’t have any weapons with or around us. Then everything goes black after I get thrown against a wall, as I hear Cordy yell out my name.

 

I’m not sure how long I was out, but when I come to, there’s a box of magic stuff including a book of love spells on the bed. Spike is gone so I slowly sit up. My head is spinning a little, but when I see Cordy out cold on the floor, I forget my pain. I rush to her side.  
“Cordy?”  
I’m knelt beside her at this time. I gently hold her in my arms. I put a couple fingers to the side of her neck. I sigh in relief. She’s alive. I take my fingers away from her neck. Instead, I stroke her hair with my free hand.  
“Cordy. Can you hear me, Cordy? Please wake up.”  
I know. It sounds like I’m begging. But I want to know if she’s alright. I won’t know if she is until she comes to.  
“Come on, Cor. Wake up, Cor. We have to get out of here. Come on. Can you hear me, Cor?”  
With eyes closed she says, “I hear you, Xan.” Then she opens her eyes and we smile at each other.  
“Are you okay, Cor?”  
“Yeah. You?”  
“I’m okay.”  
I help her up and we walk out.

 

“He’s back,” I say as we walk into the library.  
“Who?” Buffy asks.  
“Spike,” Cor answers for me.  
We sit at the table by Buffy, Willow, and Oz.  
“Are you okay?” Wills asks.  
“We’re fine,” Cor replies, annoyed that Wills said ‘you’, instead of ‘you guys’ or ‘you two.’  
“We were worried,” Oz says.  
“Yeah. What happened?” Buffy asks.  
“Spike captured us. I don’t know why. I do know that there was a box of magic supplies and a book of love spells on the bed. Spike wasn’t there, though,” I explain to them.  
“Drusilla broke up with him. I think that stuff was to try and bring her back to him,” Willow says.  
“He must’ve captured us to have us do the spell for him,” Cordy says.  
“And knowing him, he has been drinking. He’s probably out there right now as drunk as you can imagine,” Buffy says.  
“What can we do?” Oz asks.  
“You guys stay here. If he’s as drunk as I think he is, I can handle him by myself.” And with that, she leaves the library.

 

A few hours later, she comes back. She tells us that she staked him. That makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. So we all live happily ever after, as much as we can on the Hellmouth.


	7. Lover’s Walk (2nd revised version; Cordelia’s POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Oz wasn’t around yet? What if Spike captured Cordelia and Buffy? Read to find out what happens.

It’s a beautiful night, as Buffy and I walk into the laboratory room where we’re supposed to meet the others. I personally hate the idea. I mean, a double date? Seriously, who in their right mind would do a double date with bowling? I have a really bad thought on this. I know I’m with Xander now, but what’s stopping Willow from taking Xander away from me? I mean, she has had a crush on him since first grade. Maybe even at a younger age. The point is, I’m afraid that she and Xander will fall in love and we’ll break up. But enough with my rambling.  
“What do we do until they get here?” I ask her.  
Buffy is the Vampire Slayer of Sunnydale by the way. She gets rid of the evil in this town.  
“I don’t know. Just talk about stuff?”  
“Stuff? Like what?”  
“Like…I don’t know. Think of something.”  
“How about when you were in LA?”  
“What about?”  
“You said you used to be popular. How did that work out?”  
“It was great. I had friends. Well, I thought I did. I was a cheerleader even. And there was this guy that I saved that had a crush on me. He was the kind that never goes up to a girl and asks  
her out, because he’s afraid or shy.”  
“That was your life then?”  
“Yeah. And then when I was a freshman in high school, some guy comes up to me and tells me that I’m the Slayer and it’s my destiny. I fought against being the Slayer. I didn’t want to be the Slayer. It meant I would have to sacrifice cheer leading and my popularity.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“You don’t know what I’ve been through. I had to sacrifice everything I knew. The worst part was that I couldn’t tell my friends. And when mom and dad heard about what I did in school, we had a family talk that ended in a fight. I tried to tell them what I was, but they wouldn’t hear of it. And then I accidentally blew up the gym. When it got worse, and when I wouldn’t stop talking about vampires and stuff, they put me in an asylum. They thought it would help. When I stopped talking about them, I was set free after two years in there. A year later, mom and dad broke up. I don’t know why. They never told me why it happened,” she explains.  
“Sounds like it’s been rough for you,” I say sympathetically.  
“Yeah. It was. We moved here so we could start fresh. That’s what mom wants. I sometimes wish I was still in LA. I didn’t want to move, but mom made me go.”  
Suddenly, Spike comes in.  
“Watch out!” I warn her.  
She whips around to see who it is. Then it’s a fight between them. He punches her in the face. She hits the ground. She gets up and throws him. He lands on a lab table. I hurriedly search for a weapon. As I look in a cupboard, I hear smashing and bangs. Then  
I find a wooden spoon. It was in a drawer. I turn around. He has her against a wall, lifted off the ground, pinned there, hand around her throat tightly.  
I take a cross out of my purse and walk up behind him. I put it to his face, which makes him let go of her and back away, hands shielding himself from it.  
“Back off, Spike,” I order.  
With cross outstretched towards his face, I kneel by her. She’s on the floor coughing.  
“Are you okay?” I ask.  
“Yeah. Thanks,” she says between coughs.  
“You’re welcome.”  
I stand up and look at him.  
“I suggest you get the hell out of here or you’ll have to deal with me,” I say with venom.  
“What are you going to do Miss Pageant girl?”  
“I’m going to put this on your face and see you smoke with holy water. Then I’ll have Buffy stake you for good. Is that what you want? I don’t think so.”  
“You wouldn’t stand a chance. You haven’t been a part of this trio for long. I very much admire you though, Princess.”  
“Don’t EVER call me that,” I say with all attitude and slices of venom.  
“What? Am I too good for you?”  
“Oh, please. You’re way under me. Those clothes? They’re from like, what, the eighteenth century? And that hair? It’s totally off. I don’t go for blond guys. And that thing about vamping? No thank you. Ask me when you turn human. I don’t go for vampires. They stink like decay. You’re not my type.”  
“But yet you go for punks?”  
“Xander isn’t a punk. He’s my only guy I’ll ever love.”  
“That’s what they all say.”  
“You’re trying to play with me. Aren’t you?”  
He smiles.  
“Maybe.”  
Just then, Buffy stands beside me.  
“My turn.”  
I back off to stand by a faraway lab table. I put my cross away.  
While they’re fighting, I get out my Samsung 4g phone. I text Xander.  
Where are you guys?  
Just finished up the homework in the library.  
Hurry up. Spike is here. Buffy is fighting him, but he seems stronger than before.  
Spike!? On our way.  
Thanks.  
Welcome.  
I put my phone away.  
I see him knock her aside and she hits her head on a table and falls to the ground.  
“Buffy!”  
“Don’t worry. She’ll be okay,” he tells me.  
“I don’t believe you.”  
“That’s too bad, lil’ May Queen.”  
I start backing away and I grab the spoon from the table. I know I need to get out of here, but he’s strong and fast. I wouldn’t stand a chance running from him.  
“Let’s play nice, luv.”  
“I’m not your love.”  
“Of course. Nobody knows. Dru left me.”  
“Well, good for her. Maybe you can actually get a life without her. Or vise versa.”  
I can’t believe I just said that to him. It’s Spike for God’s sake. He killed like, two Slayers in his unlife time. He’s famous for being William the Bloody.  
He growls low in his throat at me and grabs my arm.  
“You think I deserve this pain!? You think I don’t have a life!? I had a life with Drusilla! I love her!”  
“Get the hell off of me, moron!”  
I kick him in the gut.  
He lets go. Then without warning, he hits me in the back of the head. In the next second, everything goes black.

 

I don’t know how long I was out cold, but when I come to I have a small headache. I sit up and rub the back of my head. I look around. We’re in the basement of the old burned out factory.  
“Just great. The middle of nowhere.”  
I look around from the bed for Buffy. When I see her on the floor not far from the door, I rush over and kneel by her.  
“Buffy?”  
I feel for a pulse on the side of her neck. She’s alive.  
“Thank God.”  
I gently roll her onto her back. I put a gentle hand on her forehead.  
“Buffy can you hear me?” I call.  
Nothing yet.  
“Buffy, “I call again.  
After a few minutes, she finally answers.  
“Cordelia?”  
“It's me.”  
She looks at me and I take my hand away.  
“Are you okay, Buffy?”  
“Excluding a headache, I’m fine.”  
“Same here,” I reply. “Where is he?”  
“I don’t know.”  
She starts to get up and I help her.  
I watch her go to the door and kick it down.  
“Come on, Cordelia. Let’s get out of here.”  
“Agreed,” I comment.  
We’re walking up the stairs when they collapse from under her.  
“Buffy!” I yell.  
I scramble up the stairs and look down into the hole. I carefully climb down into the hole.  
“Buffy?”  
I kneel down beside her.  
“Buffy, can you hear me?”  
She just lays there on her back.  
I look her over.  
“Oh, God,” I mutter.  
There’s a rebar protruding from her abdomen through her side where her rib cage is.  
Just then, I hear feet from above. Then there’s a voice. I’ll always know that voice.  
I look up.  
“Oh, God. What happened?” he says.  
“The stairs collapsed from under her. I know how she is with hospitals, but she might need one,” I answer him.  
“Want me to get some help?” Willow asks.  
“Not yet.”  
A few minutes later, he’s right beside me.  
“Maybe I can help. Just tell me what to do.”  
“Pull it out and use your jacket to tie around her wound.”  
“You’re very smart with these kind of things, aren’t you?”  
“Maybe.”  
“How do you want to do this?” he asks me.  
“I’ll pull it out and you apply pressure to her wound with your jacket, excluding the sleeves. We need the sleeves to tie around her.”  
So that’s what we do. He applies pressure once it’s out and we tie it around her securely. He then picks her up and I help him climb out of the hole.  
Once we’re out of the factory, I have to ask him, “Xander, where are we going?”  
“My basement. Where else? Her mom and sister would freak seeing her like this.”  
“She has a sister?”  
“Yeah. Her name is Dawn.”  
“Pretty name.”  
Once she’s on his bed, he looks at us.  
“You two can go to either Willow’s or yours. I’ll take care of Buffy.”  
“Sure,” I comment. “Leave you with your crush.”  
“Cor.”  
“I was mocking in my sarcastic way,” I assure him.  
I grab Willow’s arm.  
“Let’s go to your place.”  
We leave his basement and walk to her place.

 

The next day, Buffy is alright and my head is done throbbing. Oh, and Spike is dust. So we all live as happily as we can on the Hellmouth.


	8. Lover's Walk (3rd revised version; centered on Cordy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Cordelia had seen Harmony kissing Xander, instead of Willow and Xander kissing? What will happen? Read to find out.

Cordelia Chase felt like her world was crashing down on her, as she stood in the doorway.  
“Oh, God,” she said, hands over her mouth.  
“Cor…” he said, trying to think of what to say. He thought he knew what was coming. He didn’t know that she had seen Harmony kiss him first.  
“I have to go. I can’t look at this.”  
Harmony and Xander looked at her, and then she walked out, leaving them there.  
“We should follow her,” he said, getting up.  
She nodded in agreement and he helped her up.

 

When they reached her, she stood a foot away from the room she had seen them in.  
“Cordy, I----“ he started, but she cut him off.  
“Don’t, Xander.”  
She turned to face them.  
“Harmony, I can’t believe you. You of all people! What were you thinking!?”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“Just go before I get even more pissed.”  
Harmony did as she was told.  
Xander came up to her.  
“Cor…”  
“You don’t have to say anything, Xan. She kissed you first. You didn’t want to. I saw everything.”  
“You were there that long?”  
“Yeah. I was.”  
Suddenly, the stairs collapsed from under the blond Cordette.  
They could only watch in horror.  
“Harmony!” Cordelia yelled out to her best friend.  
She scrambled up the stairs and looked into the hole, Xander following more cautiously.  
“Oh my God,” she said.  
She didn’t hesitate. She carefully climbed down into the hole to be with her.  
“Harmony, hang on,” she said.  
She knelt by her best friend.  
“Oh, God,” Xander said.  
She looked up at him.  
“Xander, go get help and hurry! I’ll stay with her!” she yelled up at him so he could hear her.  
She watched him scramble away to get help and then looked down at her.  
“Harm, hang in there. Xander’s going to go get help.”  
She moved her head to look at the brunette.  
“Cordelia, I’m sorry,” she apologized softly.  
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not mad at you anymore,” she assured her.  
“Good.”  
“All you have to worry about is not dying. You have all your life ahead of you.”  
Ten minutes later, Harmony was loaded into an ambulance.  
They watched as it drove away, arms around each other.

 

The next day, Harmony was okay. So everybody lived happily ever after.


	9. Lover's Walk (4th revised version; Willow and Cordelia's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Spike had captured Willow and Cordelia, instead of Willow and Xander? Read to find out what happens.

Willow

It’s a dark night, as Cordelia and I walk into the lab room in Sunnydale High. We’re supposed to meet everyone here so we can go bowling. I turn on the light. Cordelia starts forward towards a bowl on a table.  
“What’s that?” she asks me.  
“Uh, nothing. It’s nothing.”  
“Nothing? It’s something when you start talking like that.”  
She reads the title of the book.  
“Magic again?”  
“Okay. You got me. I was going to do a spell to get rid of these feelings.”  
She raises an eyebrow at me.  
“What feelings?”  
“Xander and I realized bowling is a very bad idea. Our feelings are changing. I still love Oz, though. And I’m sure he still loves you. To keep us from doing something we’ll regret later, I was going to do an anti-love spell. I didn’t want anyone to know. Xander doesn’t even know I was going to do the spell.”  
“So if I have this right, you two are falling for each other. You want to get rid of that feeling you guys have for each other.”  
“Yeah. That’s right.”  
“Do the spell. I’ll keep out of the way.”  
Cordelia stands by a table a foot away, while I do the spell.  
A few minutes later, when I’m finished, we stand by each other.  
“Thanks for letting me do it.”  
“Don’t mention it. I just hope it worked.”  
“Me, too.”  
Just then, the door opens to reveal Spike. “You don’t mind if I borrow the girl do you?” he asks Cordelia.  
“Go the hell away,” she orders him.  
“That doesn’t work for my kind.”  
“Yeah. I know it.”  
He grabs my arm, but Cordelia walks up to him and holds a cross up, making him back off a few paces.  
“Let her go. I mean it,” she orders with venom, staring him down with her Queen C glare.  
He throws me against a wall.  
“Will!” she calls out to me.  
Spike grabs Cordy’s wrist in a firm grip, making her drop the cross. He then throws her. I see her roll and hit a wall before everything goes black.

 

I come to to see that I’m in the old burnt out factory. Spike is there. I nervously sit on the edge of the bed, fidgeting with my hands. He dumps a box of supplies on the bed.  
“A spell. For me. You’re going to do a spell for me.”  
“Um, what kind of spell?”  
“A *love* spell! Are you brain dead?”  
He goes to the dresser.  
“I’m going to get what’s mine.” He grabs a bottle. “What’s mine.” He uncorks it. “Teach her to walk out on me.” He takes several good swallows. He looks over at me. “What are you staring at?”  
I avert my eyes. “Nothing.”  
“You can do it, right? You can make Dru love me again? Make her crawl!”  
“I-I can try.”  
He breaks his bottle against the bed post, standing in front of me. He grabs me and threatens me with the sharp edges.  
“You lie to me, and I’ll shove this through your face! You want that?”  
“No…” I say in terror.  
“Right through your BRAIN!”  
“No, please, no…”  
He shoves me aside and leans against the bed post.  
“She wouldn’t even kill me.”  
He drops the broken bottle and sits down beside me.  
“She just left. Didn’t care enough to cut my head off or set me on fire.” He sniffs. “I mean, is that too much to ask? You know? Some little sign that she cared?” He inhales and exhales deeply. “It was the truce with Buffy that did it. Dru said I had gone soft. Wasn’t demon enough for the likes of her. And I told her it didn’t mean anything, I was thinking of her the whole time, but she didn’t care. So, we got to Brazil, and she was…she was just different. I gave her everything: beautiful jewels, beautiful dresses with beautiful girls in them, but nothing made her happy. And would fliiirt!” He sniffs again. “I caught her on a park bench, making out with a *Chaos* Demon! Have you ever seen a Chaos Demon? They’re all slime and antlers. They’re disgusting.” He looks at my face and strokes my hair. “She only did it to hurt me.” He takes his hand off me. “So I said, ‘I’m not putting up with this anymore.’ And she said, ‘Fine!’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got an unlife, you know!’ and then she said…she said we could still be friends.” He leans over and sobs on my shoulder. “God, I’m so unhappy!”  
I tentatively pat his knee.  
“There, there.”  
“I mean, friends! How could she be so cruel?”  
He raises his head and looks at my neck.  
“That smell…your neck.”  
He leans in to sniff me.  
I cringe.  
He stands up.  
“Well then, you better get on with that spell.”  
“This isn’t enough. There’s a spell book.”  
“You left it at home?”  
“No.”  
“Where?”  
“Buffy’s.”  
I watch him as he leaves, shutting the door behind himself.  
I stand up and scan the room for Cordelia.  
I see her lying on her back a foot from the other side of the bed motionless.  
I hurry over and kneel beside her.  
“Cordelia?” I say softly.  
I feel for a pulse on the side of her neck.  
I’m relieved that she’s alive. I take my fingers away. I rest a gentle hand on her forehead.  
“Cordelia? Can you hear me, Cordelia?” I call to her.  
She groans.  
“Cordelia, can you hear me?” I call again.  
She slowly comes to and looks up at me.  
I remove my hand.  
“Hey,” I say.  
“Will, hey.”  
“Come on. We have to get out of here.”  
“Okay. Help me up.”  
I grab hold of her upper arm, helping her to her feet. I let go.  
“Are you sure you’re okay?”  
“Not really.”  
I’m worried now.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“I feel light headed and sick.”  
“Let me find a way out. You can sit on the bed.”  
I help her sit on the bed and then I walk over to the steel door.  
It easily opens. I look out. He’s not back yet.  
I walk over to her.  
“Let’s go.”  
I help her to her feet and put an arm around her, helping her along as we leave the room and head up the stairs slowly.

Cordelia

As we walk through the darkness, Willow helping me along, I feel horrible. I don’t know what’s wrong. The only thing I know is that I’m lightheaded and ill.  
We soon arrive at her place.  
“Do you want to lay down?” she asks.  
“No. I need a bathroom.”  
She helps me to it and I walk in, shutting the door after telling her to call Xander. I kneel in front of the toilet and puke my guts out.  
She comes back a few minutes later and tells me through the door that he’s on my way, before walking away.  
Twenty minutes later, I hear a knock on the door and then his voice.  
“Cordy, are you okay?”  
“Not really. Come in.”  
“You sure?”  
“Yeah.”  
He walks in, closing the door. He kneels beside me.  
“Cor, I think you should go to the doctor.”  
“Right now?”  
“Yeah. I’ll take you there myself.”  
A few minutes later, I’m in the doctor’s office with Xander sitting in a chair, supporting me with his presence. We find out that somehow I’m seven days pregnant.  
We soon leave.  
“I’m sorry I got you pregnant, but at least we know our future a little.”  
“Xander, don’t apologize. I’ll deal. It’s not that different. I mean, look at Buffy. She had to quit after she became the Slayer. I’m going to have to quit cheer leading because of this baby. Not much difference there. They’re both jobs.”  
“Wow. Comparing yourself to a Vampire Slayer. I never thought you had it in you.”  
“It’s a start, Xan. In fact, let’s go to the library and announce the news. We can celebrate tomorrow.”  
“Sounds like a plan to me. What about your followers?”  
“Them?”  
I think for a sec before answering.  
“They’ll deal. Definitely. In fact, I think I’ll see to it that Harmony gets booted up to captain. It’ll show her how hard it is for the captains. For me. I don’t think she actually realizes.”  
“Good call. You do that. We celebrate. Everything will be dandy as can be. I mean, we’re on the Hellmouth.  
Half an hour later, we’re all seated at the table, Giles home, the rest of us at the school library.  
We have just told them the news and they’re happy for us; All of them. And you know something? For the first time in my life, I actually feel like I belong. That I have true friends. The kind that don’t give a crap if I’m poor or rich, popular or an outcast, or even a mother at eighteen or not. That says something I realize. It says that I have true friends that I can count on. They’re family. Most of all, I have the one guy that loves me for me. Not what I own. I’m his world and he’s mine. We mean the world to each other.


	10. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a one-shot. Set in S3 or 4. This is on the relationship of Spike and Harmony and what could have been with Spike and Faith.

Characters: Spike, Faith, and Harmony

Pairings:  
Spike/Faith  
Spike/Harmony (mentioned)

It was a dark night in Sunnydale, California as Faith and Spike made out in Spike’s crypt, which was located in the graveyard. They weren’t exactly girlfriend and boyfriend, but it felt right to them. It was forbidden love, because Faith Lehane was a Vampire Slayer and Spike was a vampire. They didn’t care, though. They were both lost souls that needed found again, because they had a dark past and had suffered pain and loss.  
They stopped, both sensing her close by, and Faith put her jacket back on.  
“See you, S,” she said, before she left the crypt and headed for home.  
Spike didn’t want Harmony to know that he and one of the Slayers were tight together, because he still loved Harm. Faith respected that, so she didn’t really care.


	11. The Zeppo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post “The Zeppo.” Cordelia helps Xander dispose of the bomb. Xander and Anya get hurt. Can Cordelia save the day and save their lives? Will they live? Will they die? Read to find out.

It was a dark night, as Xander Lavelle Harris sped down the road in his blue convertible with zombies running after him. He had what they needed to build a bomb.  
When he saw Cordelia Chase walking down the sidewalk, unbeknownst to her that zombies were running up the road, he idled by the curb.  
“Get in,” he said.  
“Why?”  
She looked around to see the zombies catching up quickly. She immediately got in and he drove at top speed. His destination was the high school. There was a bomb there that he had to dispose of.  
Since his ex was now with him, it was now ‘we’ instead of just him.  
“What’s going on?” she asked.  
“Zombies are chasing me because I have their supplies.  
Apparently, cake is the secret word for bomb. There’s one in the basement of the school. We have to get rid of it before it blows the school up.”  
“Who are those guys?”  
“O’Toole and his dead buddies.”  
As soon as they arrived and had the car shut off, they ran.  
They were able to get close to where the door to the basement was before they were surrounded by the zombies.  
“I guess play nice wouldn’t be a suggestion, would it?” Xander said.  
Jack O’Toole stepped forward.  
“Let’s play a game.”  
“Game?” he questioned.  
“It’s called Death.”  
He pinned the Zeppo to the wall, but not for long. Cordelia Chase kicked him off her ex, making him land on the floor on his back.  
“How about we call it I’m Going To Kick Your Ass?”  
“You’re going to pay for that, bitch.”  
“Try me.”  
Xander grabbed her arm.  
“Let’s not encourage them. Just run.”  
Once charged forward, but was kicked to the floor by Anya Jenkins.  
“Go. I’ll hold them off as long as I can,” Anya told them.  
As soon as they were in the basement, they started searching for the bomb. They had to find it. They had more than their own lives to save. They had the Scoobies, Anya Jenkins, and whoever else was in the school to save.  
Jack came down the stairs. Xander always trying to be the hero, charged him and they fought. She watched for a few moments before searching for the bomb.  
A few minutes later, she found it. She tried to figure out which cord to cut when she heard footsteps, as someone stumbled back a few paces. She stood up and turned around to see Jack with a knife in his hand, Xander looking at him with a hand to his lower stomach. That’s when she knew what had happened. She looked around for a weapon.  
Suddenly, the bomb went off. It blew Jack up in smell pieces. Xander and Cordelia were thrown in different directions and buried by the debris and cement pieces.  
The Queen C unburied herself and then went in search of her ex. It didn’t take long to find and unbury him. When she did, she that she had been right. Jack had stabbed him in the lower stomach. It was bleeding heavily. Her dweeb was hurt and it hurt her. She ripped a strip from her jeans and tied it to his wound to slow the bleeding.  
“I’ll be right back.”  
She went to the bomb.  
“Which wire?” she called to him.  
“Grey,” he called to her.  
She cut the grey wire and then dismantled it. She then came back over to him. She knelt down and helped him to his feet, an arm around him, his arm around her shoulders.  
“Let’s get you the hell out of here.”  
She slowly helped him up the stairs and down the hallway.  
When she saw Oz, she stopped and Xander did likewise.  
“Oz.”  
He came over.  
“Get him to the hospital. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Stay there until someone gets there to take your place.”  
“Okay.”  
When they had disappeared, she knelt by Anya. She lay on the floor, back to the wall, hair covering her face.  
“Anya?”  
She brushed her hair away from her face.  
“Can you hear me?”  
She opened her eyes.  
“Get me out of here.”  
She was about to ask if she was okay, but didn’t when she saw blood on the former Vengeance Demon’s hand that was pressed to her abdomen.  
“Alright. Come on.”  
She sat her against the wall and then took a strip from her jeans again. She tied it to Anya’s wound.  
“Let’s get you to the hospital.”  
She put an arm around her, as Anya put her arm around the Drama Queen’s shoulders. She used her body weight to hold her up, as she slowly walked her down the stairs, her destination being the hospital.  
Thirty minutes later, she entered the hospital with a barely conscious Anya.  
“I need some help!” she yelled.  
Five minutes later, she was put on a bed. One doctor put a breathing mask on her.  
“What happened?” another asked.  
“She was stabbed by someone. I didn’t see. Her name is Anya Jenkins. She’s nineteen. She doesn’t take anything.”  
Without another word, they rushed her down the hall while Cordelia hurried back to the school to check on the others. She had known what to say, since her mother had been a nurse.  
An hour later, she walked into a library filled with fire. She went to the first person she saw. Giles. She checked on him and then went a distance away towards Willow. She knelt down beside her.  
“Willow?”  
She groaned.  
She looked up to see the brunette.  
“Cordelia?”  
“It’s me. You okay?”  
“Yeah. I think so.”  
“Good.”  
She helped her up.  
They both went to kneel by Buffy.  
“Buffy?” Cordy called.  
Buffy groaned and looked up to see both Wills and the Queen B.  
“Aren’t you a sight. When did you start working together?”  
Cordy chuckled.  
“Since now.”  
Buff sat up.  
“Where are the others?”  
“Giles is dead, Xander and Anya are in the hospital, Oz is in the waiting room at the hospital, and I don’t know about the others.”  
“Xander’s at the hospital?” Willow asked.  
“Yeah. Apparently, you guys were too busy to help him, so I tagged along. If it weren’t for me, he would be worst. Anya, too. We had a bomb and zombie issue, while you guys were busy trying to kill a demon. Now can we go find Angel and Faith? I want to see if they’re going to be okay.”  
“Yeah. Sure. We can do that,” Wills replied.  
“Yeah. Right,” Buffy said.  
“Willow, go find Faith. Me and Buffy will go find Angel.”  
“Okay.”  
And with that, the red head disappeared.  
“Need help?” Cordy asked.  
“Why? You finally decided to overcome your ego to help others?”  
“Actually, I have. For tonight. Do I really have to ask again?”  
“No. I guess you can help.”  
Cordy grabbed her arm and helped her up.  
“To Angel we go.”  
She gave the Queen B a look.  
“I’m thinking of your well-being and his. I’m not thinking of anything else. He’s a vampire with a soul for God’s sake. The vampire part turns my intentions away that I used to have.”  
They soon found him.  
Cordy stood by and watched the Slayer kneel by her honey.  
“Are you okay?” the Slayer asked.  
“I’m fine. You?”  
“I’m good. Just a little sore.”  
Buffy helped him up.  
“You two go. We’ve got it all covered,” the brunette told them.  
Without hesitation, they left hand in hand.  
“I found her!” Will called.  
Cordy followed her voice, guessing where she was.   
She found Wills knelt down beside her by a bookshelf, where Faith lay on her side out cold. Cordy came up to them and knelt beside the Slayer.  
“Faith?”  
She groaned.  
“C?”  
She opened her eyes to see her.  
“Don’t ask. Long story. Are you okay?”  
“I think so.”  
“Good.”  
She helped her to her feet.  
Faith winced.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“Knee hurts. I’ll be okay. Slayer and all.”  
“Well, it’s dark out. Willow, could you help her get home?”  
“Yeah. Sure. And Cordelia?”  
“Yeah, Willow?”  
“Harmony was here earlier. You should make sure she wasn’t here when it went off.”  
“Thanks, Willow.”  
She watched as they left.  
After they disappeared downstairs, she went in search of her best friend.  
Half an hour later, she found her lying on her back in the middle of the hallway. She rush to her side and knelt down on her knees.  
“Harm.”  
She put a couple fingers to her neck. She took them away, relieved that she was alive.  
“Harm, can you hear me?”  
She slowly came to.  
“Cordelia?”  
She looked up to see her.  
“Are you okay?” the former cheerleader asked her friend.  
“I think I am.”  
“Good. Let’s get you home. I have places to go and people to see.”  
She helped her to her feet.  
When they were half way down the hallway downstairs, the floor gave way beneath their feet from all the fire.  
Harmony soon came to.  
She sat up and looked around.  
She crawled over to her BFF.  
“Cordelia?”  
“Harm, we have to get out of here.”  
“How?”  
“The cave in made a pile we can use to get out.”  
She winced, as she slowly sat up.  
“Are you okay?” Harmony asked.  
“Just get me to the hospital.”  
“You’re hurt.”  
“Yeah. Let’s just go.”  
She put an arm around her, as did Cordy. Both Cordettes go to their feet and slowly and carefully walked up the pile of cement pieces and debris, Cordy’s free hand pressed to her reopened wound from the last time she fell.  
An hour later, Harm walked inside with a weak Cordy. Some doctors saw them and brought a hospital bed. They got her on the bed and put a breathing mask on her.  
“What happened?” one doctor asked.  
“Her wound reopened from last time she was here.”  
That’s all they needed to know.  
The Cordette watched, as they rushed her BFF down the hallway towards the surgery room.  
She sat down in the nearest empty seat and sighed.  
A few hours later, a doctor walked up to her. Dr. Price as his name tag said. She stood up when she saw him.  
“How is she?”  
“She’ll be okay. She’s resting right now.”  
“Thank you.”  
“No need. It’s my job.”  
“I know.”  
She left for home after the doctor left the room.  
Five hours later, Dr. Walker walked up to Willow and Oz. He told them that Anya and Xander would be okay. He said the same thing about Cordy.  
A few days later, everybody was out of the hospital and Cor and Xan were back together again. So everybody lived happily ever after as they could. After all, Giles was dead. Not only that. They all lived on the Hellmouth.


	12. Class Of '99 (Cordelia's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "Graduation Part 2" after the battle, since the episode never really showed the casualties or anything like that or went in deep after the battle. So here it is.

It was a dark day, an eclipse blocking the sun, as I lay on my back, exhausted from the fight that had just ended. With as much effort as I can muster, even exhausted, and even though I don't want to see that any of my friends are dead, I look around at bodies of the fallen, hoping none of them are my friends. Then I do see someone. She never was my friend but she had been a Cordette. To tell you the truth, she had been one of the wanna-bees. The ones that laughed in the background at my silent command, knowing what their job was to do. The girl here is Aurora. At least we weren't friends. That's a good thing. In fact, I knew nothing about her. Nothing at all.  
I scan the others to see someone that, despite what he had done to me; put me through, I would forever love. My ex-boyfriend. Xander Lavelle Harris. No. It can't be right. It's not real. He can't be the 'd' word. I'll never forgive myself if he was. Never. Tears fill my eyes but don't fall. I don't let them. I can't. Not here. As the tears fill I crawl over to him in hope and determination. I never meant anything to happen to him.  
"Xander?" I call softly, hoping it'll help. Hoping it'll end this nightmare that I never wanted to come true; be real.  
A moment later, like a miracle only meant for me and me alone, he looks up at me.  
"Thank God," I say automatically.  
"You know, it takes more than this to take me down, Cordy," he tells me with love for me in his eyes. I guess he knows me enough to feel what I feel.  
"I'm sorry, Xan."  
I hug him and let silent, happy tears trail down my cheeks.   
He hugs me back.  
"Cor, what's wrong?"  
"Nothing. I'm just glad you're okay."  
I pull away and help him up, not caring how tired I am.  
Together, hand in hand, we look around at bodies. We're looking for our friends and Buffy's watcher Giles. Nobody knows as far as I know, and if someone told anyone, I would deny it. I feel as if Giles is a father I never had. To all of us, really.  
We soon find that Giles and Oz are dead which saddens us, but we move on.  
Half an hour later Buffy, Willow, Harmony, Xander, and I head towards LA to start a new life. So we all lived as happily as possible.


	13. Graduates of '99

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "Graduation Part 2" after the battle, when Cordy's waiting for the bus to come so she can leave Sunnydale behind. What if Xander found her and they talked? After their talk, will she stay or will she leave? Read to find out what happens.

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase waited for her bus to pick her up and take her to LA. She wanted to try and become an actress. After all, she had nowhere to go. She was graduated. She didn't have to stay in Sunnydale anymore. She just hoped her ex wouldn't get himself killed or hurt without her around to help him think before acting.  
Stop it. Don't think about him, she scolded herself silently.  
Just then, he came up to sit beside her on the bus stop bench.  
"Go away. Please. I don't want to talk," she told him.  
"Cordy, I'm sorry. Let me explain. What you saw wasn't what you think. Yes. We kissed. But we thought we were going to die. It was just a onetime thing. Please forgive me, Cor. I love you. I can't lose you. Not now. Not ever."  
She looked at him.  
"I'm sorry I didn't let you explain, Xan. I was just hurt," she replied.  
"Yeah. I get that."  
"I forgive you."  
"Is this us getting back together?" he asked.  
"Yes. Now shut up and kiss me," she answered.  
Then they were kissing.  
A few minutes later, they pulled away to look at each other.  
"Let's get out of here," she replied.  
He nodded.  
They stood up hand in hand.  
They smiled as they walked away, hand in hand.


	14. Graduation Survivors (Harmony's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "Graduation Part 2" after the battle. What if Harmony was never bitten or turned during the battle? Read to find out what happens.

I look up when the sun wakes me. I sit up and look around. So many bodies. So much death. And what the hell? How long have the creatures of darkness existed without my knowing? Why did Buffy and her friends even try to save us all? We have made fun of Xander and Willow for so long. Then came Buffy. It turns out we were making fun of the wrong person. She’s a what? What did she say she was? Oh. Right. A Vampire Slayer. Wow. It’s amazing what you can find out right before Graduation, isn’t it? But I guess she didn’t really succeed. I mean, look at all the bodies. The questions is where Buffy and her friends are.  
I slowly get to my feet a little unsteady. The world is a bit spinnie. I wait a moment until the spinning stops.   
I look at everyone, as I pass. So far, they’re dead. Even Aurora and the other Cordettes. I haven’t seen Cordelia yet. That sparks some hope in me. Okay. I know. I’m strange. First I don’t care about her at all. Now I actually do care if she lives or dies. But what can I say? She’s my role model. Even if she does insult me. But that’s life. It’s also how us Cordettes role. Cordelia was always way better than me, though. She’s prettier, more talented, and knows way more than I do. It’s how things have always been. It was better before Xander and Cordelia fell in love. They’re broken up now, but he still loves her as does she.  
I stop and kneel by him, seeing him. I know I never cared about Xander, but I do now. Plus, Cordelia would kill me if I didn’t help him when he needed it, and he died because of that. He doesn’t look dead, which is good.  
“Xander?”  
He stirs.  
He looks up at me.  
“Harmony?”  
“It’s me.”  
I help him to his feet.  
“You survived your first impending doom. Congratulations,” he tells me.  
“I’m strong-willed.”  
“Like Cordy.”  
“Yeah. Like Cordelia.”  
We stop and kneel beside her.  
“Cordelia?” I call.  
She slowly wakes up.  
“Harm. You survived.”  
“Yeah. Everyone is shocked for some reason.”  
We help her up.  
“Xan,” she greets him.  
“Cor,” he greets back.  
I wait for them to be done so we can move on. When it comes to them, together or not, it can be a while before they finish.  
We move on five minutes later.  
Twenty minutes later, we find that Oz, Willow, Giles, and others are dead. After we find Buffy in the half burnt down high school, we leave the premises to find life outside of high school together.  
Cordelia and Xander walk hand in hand, as we walk out, leaving our past behind us, me and Buffy in the lead side by side.


	15. Knocking On Heaven's Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S3 somewhere after the battle. What if Cordelia never left like she said she would? What if she found comfort with the bar and a Margarita, and meets an enemy on the streets that she needs her ass saved from? Who will save her? Will someone find her before it’s too late, or will the angry and sad Drama Queen be killed? Read to find out what happens.

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase sat at the bar drinking a Margarita. She was hurt, crushed, mentally wounded, and wanted to leave this town. She didn’t leave, though. She didn’t know why. All she knew was that Xander and Willow’s kiss had hurt her. She didn’t know why, but she found herself mentally wishing that she had died in the battle. It would serve them right. Make them feel more guilty. Plus, she always wanted to go out with a big bang. Die fighting the monsters little kids feared.   
She finished her third Margarita, paid Willy with a twenty, and then staggered out into the dark night. It was a cold night. It was one of those nights where she wished she had brought a jacket or sweater with her.

 

Meanwhile, the Scoobies were watching everyone party at the Bronze. Willow and Oz had gotten back together, but Oz was with Giles at the scene. Buffy stared out at the partiers blankly, remembering Angel walking away after the battle. Willow watched them dance in a somewhat good mood. Xander stared into the distance for about thirty minutes, until he came back to the present.  
He knew what he had to do. He had to get her back.  
“I think I’m going to call it a night. See you girls later,” he said, standing up and walking off.  
“Okay,” Willow replied.  
“Later,” Buffy replied meekly to him.

 

Cordelia Chase was by a jewelry store, staggering, on her way home. That’s when it happened. She was pulled into an alley. She knew it was a vampire.  
“Pretty one.”  
“Hardly,” she said.  
“Wasted, too. I like that.”  
“Don’t they all.”  
He vamped out. With a swift motion, he jerked her head to the side to expose her neck. Then he bit. She tried to kick him like she normally did to vamps, but it didn’t work. With a last resort, she screamed just loud enough so someone could hopefully hear her. And someone did. Her vision was turning tunnel-like, but she could still hear.  
“Cordy!” he yelled.  
She would always know that voice. It amazed her. Even after what he had done, he was willing to risk his life for hers.  
The vampire stopped and let her go.  
She fell to the pavement and rolled onto her back.  
She closed her eyes to rest.  
As soon as the vampire let go, looking at him, Xander put out a cross.  
“Back off.”  
It stepped away from the cross, backing away.  
When he was close enough, Xander staked it.  
He ran to and knelt by her.  
He pulled her into his arms.  
“Cordy, can you hear me?”  
She slowly opened her eyes.  
“Xander…”  
“I’m here. I’m going to get you out of here.”  
“I’m sorry…for everything.”  
“It’s okay.”  
“I forgive you…Xan.”  
He gently picked her up. When he did, she layed her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.  
Thirty minutes layer, he layed her on a hospital bed and kissed her forehead.  
“What happened?” one doctor asked.  
“I think she got cut by something. I didn’t see.”  
“Her name?” another asked.  
“Cordelia Chase. She’s nineteen. My ex.”  
He watched grimly, as they rushed her down the hall with a breathing mask on her. They hadn’t asked his name, because they knew him from as many times as he had visited his friends at the hospital.  
“Stay strong, Cordy. For me,” he muttered.  
He sat down on a bench once outside and called on his flip phone. First Buffy and then Willow. Willow had said before hanging up that she was on her way.  
He put his phone in his pocket and then went into the waiting room and started pacing. It hurt him deeply that his girl was hurt. He didn’t know how much blood she had lost, but it had looked like a lot when he had rescued her.  
Willow soon arrived and they hugged. As much as Cordelia hated and despised her, Willow respected and envied her. She respected her for being so fierce in a way that she would never be. She had despised her when she was rich and popular, because she had had everything. And even with everything, she had left all she had been a part of to be with Xander, the geek and dweeb, as Cordelia called him. And once, she had even called him the Zeppo of the Scoobies.  
Willow sat down and watched him pace back and forth, hands behind his back. There was nothing she could say that would make him feel better. He loved Cordelia in a way that nobody, not even Wills, would understand. The only thing Willow could put in words of their love, was that they evolved around each other. He was her world and she was his. Wills understood it because of her own relationship. It was intimate.  
Five hours later, fifteen minutes after twelve that morning, a doctor finally came up to them. His name tag said that he was Dr. John Gregory.  
“Mr. Harris.” He nodded at Willow. “Miss Rosenburg.”  
Willow stood beside Xander who had stopped pacing.  
The doctor looked at him.  
“She lost a lot of blood, but she’ll be fine. Visitor hours are over, but I’ll make an exception. You guy can stay as long as you like. She’s in room 119. You should know the way.”  
“Thanks, Dr. Gregory,” she said politely.  
“You’re welcome.”  
After Dr. Gregory had left to go to the back, they went down the hall and walked in. She shut the door.  
“You want me to leave you two alone?” she asked Xander.  
“Both of you can stay for now,” came a voice.  
“I didn’t know you were awake, Cordelia.”  
“I am,” she said, her head still facing the window.  
“Buffy will be here tomorrow, Cordelia.”  
“Buffy? Here? I’m surprised. Sacrificing her fear of hospitals to come make sure I’m alright.”  
“Xander said that you forgave him.”  
“Yes. I forgive him. I forgive you, too Wills.”  
“Thanks, Cordelia.”  
“You’re welcome. Just don’t do it again. You can go now. We’ll talk more later.”  
“I understand.”  
As soon as she left and Xander was seated, she finally turned her head to look at him.  
“Xander, I’m sorry that I never gave you another chance.”  
“It’s okay.”  
“No. It’s not. I hurt you because you hurt me. Well, I’m ready now. I want you back. But not just that. I want to be together forever.”  
“I do. Cordelia Chase, I promise to take you back and be with you for as long as we shall both live.”  
They smiled.  
He got up and bent down towards her. She put her arms around his neck as he did, and they kissed.

 

Buffy came in the next morning. She guessed nobody had visited her yet, but she was wrong. Cordelia was in a wheelchair, Willow standing beside it, Xander knelt in front of her with her hands in his, the former Queen C in regular clothes and ready to hit the road sort of speak.  
“What did I miss?”  
“The cavalry road in,” Willow joked, smiling down at Xan and the former Cordette.  
“She took me back,” Xander announced, smiling at his Secret Eyes.  
“We’re engaged,” the former Queen B announced, smiling at her dweeb.  
“Congratulations, guys,” Buffy announced, smiling, happy for at least one of her friends getting his life back on track.  
That morning, they left with Buffy wheeling her out.


	16. The Replacement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S5 of Buffy “Replacements.” Set in Angel when he fired everyone. Only, Harm is part of the crew when it happens. Cordy goes to Sunnydale to tell Buffy about Angel, and to seek comfort from Xander. A demon named Toth zaps Xander, making there be two Xanders.

It was a beautiful day. Giles was setting up shop for the first time at the Magik Shoppe, when a demon strolled in. It had a black robe on and had a stick in hand.  
Giles grabbed a statue and started hitting him with it. The demon through him and he hit the floor.  
“You are not the Slayer. You don’t concern me,” it said.  
Giles watched, as he left.  
Later that day, he called the Scoobies over. Xander started putting a disk on a shelf, while Buffy stood around. Willow started looking at titles of books. Riley swung the statue around.  
“Here’s one. Maybe it had what we’re looking for,” Willow said.  
Giles took the book from her and soon found it.  
“Toth,” he said.  
“What?” Riley questioned, stopping with the statue thing.  
“It’s British for ‘dork,’” Buffy guessed.  
“No. Toth. It’s the demon,” Giles corrected her.  
They all gathered around to look at it over his shoulder.

 

That night, they all went on the hunt for Toth. When they were in the city dump, they spotted Spike. Spike was looking for body parts of plastic dolls. He was going to make a plastic doll that looked like the Slayer.  
“What are you doing here, Spike?” Buffy asked.  
“I could ask you the same thing.”  
“Have you seen a demon? Spotty face, skin kind of hanging down, black robe, carries a long stick?” Willow asked him.  
“Like that one?” he asked, seeing him behind them.  
They all turned around to see Toth.  
“Kill them, mate!” Spike hollered to Toth.  
Toth accidentally blew up a plastic arm he was holding, when he tried to zap Buffy. “Oh very nice! I was on your side!” he yelled out, and then left.  
“Watch out!” Xander warned Buffy, pushing her out of the way.  
From Toth’s stick a blast blasted him in the chest, and he flew backward into a pile of trash.  
The others rushed over.  
“Hey, you okay?” Riley asked.  
“I’m okay.”  
“Buffy, he’s gone,” Willow told her.  
“Easy, easy,” Riley said, as he and Willow helped him up. He groaned as they did.  
“He disappeared,” Riley announced.  
They looked around to see no sign of Toth. They started to walk off.  
“That had to hurt,” Riley sympathized with him.  
“Yeah, yeah.”  
As they walked away, they didn’t know there was another Xander unconscious on the trash in the city dump.

 

Scruffy Xander in the city dump started to wake up. With eyes closed, he thought he was smelling Anya trying to cook.  
“Anya, are you trying to use the hot plate again?”  
He slowly opened his eyes.  
As he started sneaking behind things, he saw Xander one in a trailer thing. He thought Xander one was a demon. He followed him around some, and then decided to go to Buffy.

 

That night, he saw Xander one with them telling them about Xander two. He went to Willow, not wanting to accidentally be killed by Buffy.  
Willow opened the door and he walked in.  
“Let me tell you stuff,” he said to her after she had shut the door.  
He started pacing.  
“Okay,” she said, sitting on the foot of her bed.  
He talked about the past and stuff. Afterward, he told her that there was “ a demon that has my face, is living my life, and taking my life away from me.”  
“I’ll find a spell,” she volunteered, kneeling by her bookshelf.  
“No. Not yet.”  
As they started talking, he suddenly said something. “Anya. He can have everything else but not her.”  
He left and went to his place. He found his and Anya’s new apartment. He walked in on Anya and Xander one’s candlelit wine.  
They both stood up.  
“Xander, who’s this?” Anya asked Xander one.  
“It’s a demon,” he replied.  
“No. I’m the real one, Anya. He’s the demon,” Xander two disagreed.  
She looked at Xander two and started forward, only to be pulled behind Xander one with her arm that wasn’t in a sling.  
Xander two pulled out and cocked his gun, aimed to shoot.  
The two started to fight with the gun.  
Anya tried to stop them by fighting over it with her one good arm.

 

Meanwhile, Buffy got a call.  
“Hello?”  
“Buffy.”  
“Cordelia?”  
“Something has happened. I’m on my way to Sunnydale as we speak.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“Tell you all later.”  
“This isn’t the right time.”  
“What happened?”  
Buffy told her everything.  
“Give me the address. I’ll be there.”  
She did just that.  
Both Slayer and Drama Queen arrived on the scene.  
Buffy started forward, but Cordelia put a hand on her arm. “Let me.” Cordelia went towards them and grabbed the gun out of their hands.  
She put it on the counter.  
They looked at her.  
“Enough,” she said, arms crossed.  
“Cor,” Xander two said.  
“Hey, Xan. Listen. Both of you. Buffy told me everything. If one of you dies, the other dies as well. Got me? Okay. Willow’s turn,” she finished, still not being as strong as she used to be.  
She watched as Willow did the spell, making Toth’s spell break.  
A few minutes later, they were interrupted by Toth’s arrival.  
Buffy and Toth wrestled and Cordy killed him with a sword through his heart.  
Xander didn’t see any jubilance in Cordy like he used to see. She didn’t give a remark or comment, either. She just stood there and looked at a wall, until he came over and wrapped his arms around her from behind.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked.  
“Something everyone has to know.”  
“What?”  
“Magik Shoppe right now, okay?”  
“Okay, Cordy. We can do that.”

 

They sat at a table in the Magik Shoppe.  
“What’s up?” Anya asked gently from across the table, as if she used to be friends with her and cared about her, which was totally not true at all.  
“Willow already knows the first part,” she answered, looking at the witch and Willow’s girlfriend Tara. She then looked at everyone else one by one. “It’s Doyle. He’s…well…gone forever.” She looked at Anya. “You were a Vengeance Demon. You probably knew him one way or another.”  
“Yeah. I did. Nice guy. Helped the helpless with his painful visions. Drunk the pain away with alcohol.”  
“Yep. That was him alright.”  
She smiled sadly at his memory.  
“He died from saving his breed, me, Angel, and the world all in the same night.” She looked at Buffy. “You have a problem to fix. Angel. He’s Angelus and it wasn’t me that did it. His Sire came back from the dead. She took a chance at him to do as she wished. You have to get yourself to LA before they hurt anybody.” She looked at Xander. “I forgive you and Willow of that kiss.” She looked at Tara. “I hope to get to know you someday.” She looked at the table. “I guess I have to face the chaos in LA now. I wish I could stay here, but they’ll be beside themselves without me, so I have to go back to LA, as much as Buffy does.”

 

It was a dark night, as they walked into the Hyperion Hotel.  
“Nice place,” Buffy commented.  
“Yeah. It is,” she answered. “Hey Harm, you here?” she asked the vampiress.  
Suddenly, the soul mates appeared before them.  
“Buffy. Didn’t know you were coming,” Angelus said, smiling wickedly at the Slayer.  
Darla smiled at her, as well.  
Just then, Harmony jumped from the upstairs railing to land on the Sire. The two blonds fought like cats and dogs.  
Cordy and Xander snuck off to leave the fighting to the vampiress and Slayer.  
“Xander, I’ve missed you.”  
“Same here.”  
“Do you ever think about the past?”  
“Of course.”  
“Do you wish we had stayed together?”  
“All the time.”  
“Me too, Xan. And now, not only have I lost you, but others have died. I’m not saying that you died, but I lost both guys. I really wish we were still together. We could do as always if we were.”  
“Cor, we still can if you want. Just don’t let Anya find out. If she does, she’ll kill me. If she doesn’t kill me, she’ll dump me.”  
“Well then, let’s see how it turns out, shall we?”  
He comforted her about Doyle’s death that night. Afterward, they all went home.  
Darla was dust and Angel was back. Harmony didn’t get hurt or anything, and Cordy was her cheerful self again. She felt better knowing Xan was still there for her. So everything carried on as always in both places, and everybody lived happily ever after.


	17. Almost Too Late

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S5 of Buffy. Cordy comes to town for a visit. Remember when Faith’s new Watcher hit Giles with a statue or something? What if Cordelia Chase had been there? What if Giles hadn’t been there? Will someone come help her, or will they be too late? Read to find out.

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase walked into the library.  
Nobody was there.  
“Well, that’s strange. Even for the Hellmouth,” she commented to herself.  
She was on her way to see if Giles was in the back room.  
When she did, she saw Amy there.  
“Who are you and what the hell are you doing?” the Drama Queen demanded. She didn’t know who she was, but it looked like she had been going through Giles’ stuff on his desk.  
Without warning, she started towards the former Cordette.

 

Meanwhile in Angel’s mansion, Buffy and Faith were fighting while Angel was on the couch recovering from Faith’s attack on him. She had nearly killed him. If it wasn’t for Buffy arriving when she had, he would be dust by now.

 

Half an hour later, Xander arrived at the library. That’s when he saw his love life on her back on the floor not far from Giles’ office room.  
As soon as he saw his ex, he ran towards and knelt beside her.  
He could tell that she was barely conscious.  
“Cordy.”  
“She’s after the others. She went to Angels’ mansion,” she half-whispered.  
“What happened?”  
“She attacked me,” she said softly.  
“Okay. We’re going to go help them,” Xander replied, picking her up in his arms and walking out with her.  
As he did, she put her arms around his neck and closed her eyes with her head resting on his shoulder to rest. She knew she had a fight ahead of her.  
Half an hour later, they arrived. Cordy was now feeling much better. Amy was shining with light all around her, shooting out rays.  
Just as she shot a ray of light in Willow’s direction, Cor ran forward and got her out of the way. While that was happening, Buffy and Faith were fighting outside.  
“Are you okay?” Cor asked Willow.  
“Yeah. Thanks. You saved my life.”  
“I know.”  
While Angel and the others went to destroy Amy, Cordy went outside.  
She saw them throw Xander away, whom was trying to end the fight. He landed on the ground on his back and then sat up.  
Xander Harris watched as Cordelia intervened with the Slayers, grabbing hold of Faith’s right wrist and Buffy’s upper right arm.  
“Get a hold of yourselves right now. Stop this fighting. It’s over. And you know what? Slayers shouldn’t fight each other. They shouldn’t throw innocents with their powers, either. Chill out. Get a grip.”  
She let go of them and then helped her ex up.  
They looked at her, unable to do anything. They were seeing a different Cordelia. And she was back in Sunnydale.  
Amy was soon killed and Cordy stayed in her hometown. Sunnydale; the Hellmouth. Xan and Cor got back together and everybody lived happily ever after.


	18. The Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "The Gift," but revised. A certain brunette gives her life to save Dawn and stop the destruction Glory is creating, instead of Buffy. Read to find out what happens.

It was a beautiful night, as Cordelia parked her car in Buffy's driveway. Okay. Technically it was Angel's convertible. After all, he purchased it and paid the insurance on it. But anyway, she was back in Sunnydale, CA. Her hometown. She knew what would happen soon, since she had had a vision. That was why she was here.  
She walked up to the door and knocked a few times. Because it was dark, it wasn't Buffy that answered.  
"Hello," the girl said to her.  
"Hi. I'm Cordelia Chase. You're Dawn?"  
"Yes. I am. Why are you here?"  
"I have visions now. I had a vision. May I come in, Dawn?"  
"Sure."  
Dawn stepped aside so she could come in, and then shut the door behind her.  
"Buffy isn't here, is she?" the Seer said.  
"No. She's not. She's slaying," Dawn confirmed.  
"Well, when does she normally get home?"  
"I don't know. Really late. I'm usually asleep when she comes home."  
"If you don't mind Dawn, I'd like to stay here and wait for her. I'll call a meeting after she gets home."  
"Sure. You can stay."  
"Thanks. And Dawn, if I suddenly scream in pain, I’m having a vision."  
"Okay. Well, I’m going to bed now. See you tomorrow, Cordelia."  
"Good night, Dawn."  
"Same to you, Cordelia.”  
The Seer watched Buff's sister disappear up the stairs and into her room, and then sat down. She looked around to see what to do while she waited. It was only ten. She saw that nothing in the house had changed. Everything was the same. Almost. There were a few more pictures strewn around than what she remembered there used to be. Most of the new ones were of Buffy and Riley. It amazed her. Buffy still had pictures out of Riley, even after he had  
left. One picture in particular caught her eye.  
She stood up and walked over by the TV. The picture was back when they had all been sophomores. It had her and Xander together. They had been smiling when it had been taken. Xander wore his baggy blue jeans and a plain buttoned down shirt. She wore a red tank top and a short, blue skirt. That picture brought back so many memories. She touched it gently where Xander was. He had been so geeky, but also lovable and cute. She picked it up and hugged it to her chest. She put it back. It felt like high school had been too long ago, but she knew it hadn't. Truth be told, she still loved Xander.  
She walked over to the end table by the couch. The first one was Xander and Anya. They looked happy. Not like she and Xander did. It was mature happiness. The second one was of Willow. She was with another girl. Cordelia didn't know the girl, but she looked happy with her. She moved on to the last few. There was one of Buffy and Riley. She had her arms around him. They were smiling happily, but there was a way in the picture that showed protectiveness. Protectiveness of each other. The last one was an old one. Buffy and Angel. Angel obviously didn't smile, but Buffy did. In a way, the picture showed how her and Angel had been met for each other back then.  
After a few minutes, the Drama Queen turned the lights off and layed on the couch, looking at the picture from her wallet. It was her and Xander in junior year. It was right before her family lost everything. They were having fun in the picture. They were smiling and laughing all at once, as they went on tickling each other in the sides. They had been in so much love. She let the silent tears fall, as she remembered their past through the picture and her memories. She would forever remember those past memories. Most of all, she would remember the fights and broom closets. Back in the beginning, before anybody knew of their love relationship, they would share intense words and gropy kisses. She missed those times.  
Buffy came in thirty minutes later, but she didn't move from where she was. She just waited until Buffy saw her. She turned on the light and came over to Cordelia.  
"Cordelia?"  
"Hey, Buff."  
"What are you doing here?"  
"Vision. Long story cut short. I have visions now. very painful. Visions of horrible things to come."  
"So, something is coming?"  
"Yes. Bloodshed, the Key, you saving the world by your death, and a goddess-looking woman making it all happen."  
The seer put her picture and wallet away and then stood up.  
"We need to call a meeting. May I do the honors?"  
"Sure. It's your vision. You're in the lead."  
"Thanks, Buff."  
She sat down on the couch and called the first number on the house phone.  
Wills and Tara were asleep when the phone went off. Wills answered it.  
"What is it, Buffy?"  
"It's me, Willow."  
"Cordelia?"  
"I had a vision. Meet me at Buffy's ASAP. Call Xander and Anya for me. We'll figure things out when we meet here."  
"Okay, Cordelia."  
"Bye, Willow."  
"Bye."  
They hung up.  
They all met at Buffy's a few minutes later. Anya and Xander sat on the left of Buffy, while Willow and Tara sat on the right of Buffy. They all looked at her, as she paced back and forth, explaining things by the coffee table which was in front of the couch.  
"Willow probably hasn't told you, but I have visions. There was a sweet guy in L.A. He was half human and half Bracken Demon. He was a good guy. He had painful visions of things to come. He teamed up with Angel after he had a vision of me in danger. He and Angel saved me from a vampire and his minions. After they saved me, I decided to join. I mean, I didn't have a job. I had to do something for money. I needed to take care of myself. So, we teamed up together to create Angel Investigations. A few months later, Doyle passed his visions down to me right before he died."  
"So, he's dead," Anya said. "I'm sorry. I mean, the pain from the visions. They're very intense. The pain is excruciating. I would know. I ran into Doyle when I was a Vengeance Demon."  
"Thanks for your understanding."  
"You're welcome, Cordelia."  
"Now for the vision I had. I saw a lot of blood. There was a cunning, beautiful woman. She opened up two dimensions in order to go home. Creatures started going into our world from the dimensions. I heard Buffy's voice. Something about the Key. Things started falling. I heard Willow and Tara chanting a spell. Something happened, because I heard Anya yelling out Xander's name. I heard Dawn yelling at Buffy and her screaming in pain. I saw a monk cutting clothing with a knife. Spike tried to stop him, but was thrown several feet to the ground. It ended with Buffy's death. She jumped willingly to save the world."  
She looked around at each of them sadly, knowing what she had to do. She would die from the visions, anyway. Why not die saving the world, so Buffy didn't have to?  
"We can't let these things happen. Buffy, I know you're the Slayer, but you're not allowed to die. Anya and Xander. You guys stick together. Willow and Tara. You guys do the same. Spike and Buffy will fight Glory. I will save Dawn and the world."  
Xander stood up.  
"Cor...why not let Buff?"  
"Because I can't let her die. She's died enough. And as Anya well knows, I'll die from these visions someday. But you know me. I'd rather die from fighting evil, than to die from the visions."  
So that's exactly what they did. They knew not to contradict Cordelia; Queen C; the bitch of Sunnydale High. At least, that's what she was back in high school.

 

It was a dark night, as the Scoobies and vamp did as they were told. Spike and Buffy fought Glory, Willow and Tara recited a spell to close the two dimension portals, and Anya and Xander fought against the monks. And we all know what Cordy's plan was. Die saving the world and Dawn.  
Cordy ran towards where the monk was making Dawn bleed with a knife. Dawn was the Key. Cordy arrived from behind the monk. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The monk turned around to see Cordelia with hands on hips. "Let's play nice," she said to him.  
He charged forward and she killed him. She untied Dawn and patched up her wounds. She looked at Dawn, then the portals, and back to Dawn.  
"Cordelia," Dawn said.  
"Dawn, I have to. It's the only way. I'm sorry."  
Then she jumped.  
When everything stopped, everyone looked to see what Cordelia had done. She had sacrificed her life for everybody and everything.  
A few days later, the PTB brought her back to life. She was still herself, too. So they all lived happily ever after.


	19. A Final Deed of A Broken-Hearted Vampire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after "The Gift." Here's how Spike feels after Buffy sacrifices herself to save Sunnydale and her sister. Read to find out what happens.

It was a dark night, as Spike stood in front of the Slayer's grave. He missed her. No pain had he felt like this. Until now. Buffy Summers was dead. He could only think about her. How much he loved her. But she hadn't really loved him. Now that she was gone, it pained him. Buffy was gone forever. He knew it would happen someday, but he head hoped it wouldn't have happened so soon. And now it had happened. He and her friends had seen it. Now he was supposed to be responsible for keeping her sister safe. Dawn. But he didn't care. He would leave that to her friends and Watcher.  
He looked at her grave and sighed.  
He remembered everything between him and the Slayer. Vampires had amazing memories. He remembered in the beginning, how much he had hated her and tried to kill her. All their fights they would have. And at the end, how much he would always love her. Because he missed her so much and couldn't live without her, he knew what he wanted and would do. He held a stake in hand.  
"Forgive me, Buffy. But I must do this," he said.  
He raised the stake and staked himself to dust, hoping that he would meet her wherever she was.


	20. Helper (Cordy's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S4 of Buffy. Buffy is dead after “The Gift” and Cordy helps everyone. She still has her visions and knows what will happen if she keeps them. She doesn't want to die. Can she find a way to get rid of them before it’s too late? Read to find out what happens.

My name is Cordelia Chase and I am human. I am friends with humans, vampires, Slayers, and a witch. I was born and raised in Sunnydale, California where I am heading to. Angel fired all of us, so I’m heading home where I feel the safest. I may or may not go back to LA because Sunnydale draws everyone there.  
It’s a dark night, as I drive through Sunnydale on my way to Xander’s new apartment. If it’s not too much to ask, he’ll let me stay with him for a little while. We were once together, and I still love him. We have a connection that nobody ever understood.  
Half an hour later, I know on the door and he opens it.  
“Cor?” he questions with astonishment.  
“It’s me,” I reply.  
“Not that I’m not glad to see you or anything, because I am; but what are you doing here, Cordy?”  
“I came home and you’re the only one that would welcome me. You know the others never really welcome me back then, so why should they now?”  
He steps aside to let me in and I walk inside.  
I sit down on the couch and he sits next to me.  
“What have I missed?” I ask him.  
“A lot; Buffy has a sister named Dawn whom apparently was the Key to a demon goddess going home. Buffy died saving the world. It’s only a matter of time before this place turns into Sunny hell. There hasn’t been a Slayer chosen to take Buffy’s place sorta speak. We’re all doing our best, but we can’t do it as good as we used to. We have lives now.”  
“I can help you,” I tell him.  
“How? You’re not a Slayer and last time I saw you you weren’t much of a physical fighter.”  
“Angel taught me everything he knows and I paid attention to Buffy and Faith’s techniques. We should go meet the others. Where are they?” I say.  
“They’re probably at the Magik Shoppe.”  
“Then let’s go. We can take the convertible. I borrowed it from Angel.”  
An hour later, we walk into the Magik Shoppe and everyone looks at us.  
“What the hell are you doing here?” Anya blurts out at me in a not so nice tone of voice. She knows our history and never liked me.  
“Simmer down, An. It’s not what you think. She came to me. Nothing happened,” he assures her.  
“Yeah, right,” she says.  
I sit down at one of the tables.  
“This is not the reunion I was expecting. What happened to Welcome home or What have you been doing for the last two years of your life?” I imply.  
Willow sits down at my left with a girl I’ve never seen before, while Xander sits at my right and Anya sits next to him. Another girl I’ve never seen before, while Xander sits at my right and Anya sits next to him. Another girl I’ve never seen before sits between Anya and the other girl. Giles isn’t here, so I’m going to guess that he left after Buffy died.  
“You weren’t very nice about it and I understand why, but I’ll answer your question anyway. I’m here because I came home after Angel fired everyone. Believe it or not, this is my safest haven I know where I’ll mostly be welcomed back,” I explain to Anya. I then say, “Xander told me about Buffy, Dawn, and the problem of not having a Slayer around. I’m going to help. Angel taught me everything he knows. Not only that; I can help you in more ways than one. I’m still getting used to them, but I have visions of things to come. Since it’s Sunnydale, It’ll get worst.”  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know or I wouldn’t have snapped at you,”  
Anya apologizes to me.  
“It’s okay.”  
I look at Willow, my good witch friend.  
“Who’s this?” I ask, looking at the girl by her.  
“Cordelia, this is Tara. And that’s Dawn.”  
“Nice to meet you both; I’m Cordelia.”  
I give them a friendly smile.  
I look at Xander.  
“I’ve missed you a lot.”  
I look at everyone.  
“Let’s go. I’ll show you.”  
I get to my feet and they follow me to the graveyard.  
Half an hour later, we’re fighting against five vampires in the cemetery. Willow and Tara are using magic and stakes all together, while Anya and Xander are using stakes. I’m suing the sword Angel gave me a year ago to use.  
As another newbie vamp comes at me, I kill him by decapitation and he explodes into ashes. Another one tries to sneak up behind me and I twirl around and give it a hard kick, making it stagger back, before I kill him with my sword through his heart, and he too turns to ashes.  
I look on to see if anyone needs help and I see the scene. Anya is on her back on the ground with a vamp drinking from the side of her neck. I then race towards the scene and kick it off her, before I make him turn to dust. I then kneel down by her with my sword next to me on the ground.  
“Anya,” I say.  
She looks up at me.  
“I know it hurts, but you’ll be okay. I promise,” I tell her.  
I rip a piece of my blue jeans off and apply it to her bite wound.  
I have to stop the bleeding.  
Half an hour later, we’re at Xander and Anya’s new apartment with Anya in their bed. Anya will be okay, since I cleaned and patched up her wound.  
I walk out of their bedroom.  
“She’ll be okay,” I inform Xander, Willow, Tara, and Dawn.  
“When did you learn all of that back there?” he asks me.  
“In LA mostly from Angel and watching Faith.”  
“So Deadboy is actually useful for once.”  
“Xan, Will, Tara, Dawn; I have to tell you something. Anya was a Vengeance Demon, so she already knows. There isn’t an easy way to say this, but I need to get rid of these visions sooner or later. If I don’t, I’ll die over time.”  
“Cor,” is all Xan says.  
“We can find a way to help,” Will offers.  
“Do that,” I tell Will and Tara.  
I watch them go.  
I look at Xan and Dawn.  
“I don’t want to die. When Anya feels better, I need her help. She might know what I have to do to give them up.”  
I go back into the bedroom and sit silently on her bedside.  
Half an hour later, she comes to and I look down at her.  
“Welcome back. Feeling better?” I greet.  
“I am. Thanks.”  
She sits up and I get off the bed to stand by her.  
“Anya, I have to ask you something.”  
“What is it?”  
“Do you know how I can get rid of my visions before it’s too late?”  
“Yeah; you have to transfer them with a kiss.”  
“Thanks, Anya. I’m going to go now. Get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
“You’re welcome, Cordelia.”  
I leave the bedroom, grab my stuff, and leave the apartment with Dawn. I’m going to stay home at Buffy’s with Dawn to keep her company.  
An hour later, Dawn is asleep in her room so I go to the graveyard to Spike’s crypt. The visions won’t kill him since he’s a vampire, and I don’t care much for him.  
Later, Spike has the visions and I go home and go to sleep in Buffy’s old room.  
The next day, Anya is better and I tell them that I gave the visions to Spike.  
The next night, Sunnydale is under control thanks to mostly me and I’m a Scooby again.


	21. New Potential

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if in S6, Cordelia had become a potential instead of them thinking Dawn would be a Slayer, when it was going to be, I think Amanda? What if Cordelia came back to Sunnydale? What will happen? Read to find out.

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase drove Angel’s convertible into Sunnydale and parked in front of the Summer’s residence.  
She got out after taking the keys out of the ignition, and walked the short distance to stand on Buffy’s doorstep and knock on the door.  
Buffy opened it to reveal a brunette she hadn’t seen in three years.  
“What brings you here?” she asked.  
“Potential. Not that I really wanted this or anything,” Cordelia Chase replied. “May I come in?”  
“Sure. They’re all in the living room,” the Slayer replied.  
Buffy closed the door behind her and both of them walked into the living room.  
“Who’s that?” Dawn asked.  
“Cordelia,” the former Queen of Sunnydale High answered.  
“And you are?”  
“Dawn. Buffy’s sister,” Dawn answered back.  
“Good to know. I guess I’m a potential. So, what do we do? Because I don’t think I need training. Been there. Done that. Angel likes to make sure I don’t get myself hurt or killed, so he trains me in battle,” she explained to them.  
Xander gave her his cocky grin she always loved.  
“Glad to have you back,” he said.  
“Me too, Xan. Same here.”  
She looked around at the room of people.  
“So what’s the plan? I’m ready for some action and fighting. Let’s kick some ass,” she said, pulling out her sword she always used.  
(The rest is history as we know it. Lol.)


	22. Unwanted House Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Cordelia had been there in that episode when Dawn accidentally made a wish to Halfrek that no one would ever leave her, which Halfrek obviously granted? What will happen? Will the house demon kill or hurt someone? Will everyone live? Read to find out.

It was a beautiful day. Anya was taking inventory in the Magik Box. Xander, Willow, Anya, and Dawn were the only ones there.  
While Anya, Xander, and Willow were busy, Dawn stole a crystal necklace from on top of the front counter, slipping it into her backpack.  
The next day at school, she was called down to the councilor’s office. Her and the unfamiliar, female councilor spoke. Towards the end, Dawn said that she wished no one would ever leave her again.  
Later that day, everyone found they couldn’t leave the house.  
That night, when everyone was in the kitchen, there was a knock on the door.  
Buffy answered it.  
“If you come in you won’t be able to leave. We’re having a problem here,” Buffy warned the brunette.  
“I’ll help. Fill me in,” Cordelia Chase replied, walking in, figuring that was as much of an invitation as any.  
Everyone looked up as she walked in.  
“Well, if it isn’t the bitch of this town,” Anya commented.  
Cordy wanted to ignore her comment, but something within her stirred and she had to reply back. “Anya, shut up.”  
For once, Anya did shut up.  
“Cordy,” Xander said.  
“Welcome home, Cordelia,” Willow said.  
Cordy smiled at Willow in thanks for the warm welcome. She then looked at Xander for a minute before sitting down between Dawn and Anya.  
Everyone filled her in on what was happening and Cordy got an idea. She knew from Angel and the others that Dawn was always the troublemaker.  
She looked at Dawn.  
“Let’s go upstairs, Dawn. You guys try and find out what’s causing the problem and how we fix it,” she said.  
Dawn and Cordelia walked into the room.  
“So, what’s going on?” Dawn asked her. She had never met her before.  
“I’m Cordelia Chase. Xander’s ex-girlfriend. Right now, I’m a Seer. That means I have visions of what’s happening or going to happen. I also have some senses that I didn’t have before. They tell me when something is wrong and when someone is lying to me or not. May I take a look at your stuff?” she said.  
Cordelia wasn’t like Anya that would just barge in and start searching in other people’s things without permission when she knew something was up. Cordelia would simply ask or drop a hint or two.  
“I guess,” Dawn replied.  
Dawn watched from the doorway as Cordelia looked for anything that could be a clue to what was going on.  
When she didn’t find anything, Cordelia walked up to her.  
“Dawn, can I ask you something?” she asked Dawnie.  
“Sure.”  
“Did you maybe make a wish? It’s not really your fault if you did. You didn’t know you were doing it, probably. I mean, I made one to Anya once. I didn’t even know I was doing it until I saw her face and then everything changed.”  
“I guess I did. I don’t know.”  
“Tell me.”  
So Dawnie told Cordy everything.  
They soon got rid of the house demon and Anya got Halfrek to reverse the wish. So everybody lived happily ever after with Cordy going back home.


	23. Once More, With Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "One More, With Feeling." Sweets, a demon that sings and makes others sing, comes to Sunnydale. What will happen? Read to find out.

It was a beautiful day, as Buffy rolled over in bed when the clock went off, hitting seven am. She glared at the clock. She reached over, picked it up, and looked at it.  
Meanwhile, Willow walked across her bedroom and then turned and went back the way she had come. She grabbed a sweater from a chair and exited into the bathroom. As she went, Tara went to making the bed. She found the herb that Willow used to do the “forgot” spell.  
She picked it up, sniffed it, and smiled.  
Dawn ran out of her room and over to the bathroom door. She knocked on the door while jumping from foot to foot as if she had to pee. Willow came out of the bathroom brushing her hair. Dawn rushed into the bathroom.  
Buffy continued to lay in bed, awake.  
At the Magik Shoppe, Xander and Anya were looked at a bridal magazine, smiling and talking. A customer came over and Anya escorted her toward the cash register.  
Dawn stood by the bookshelves looking at a book. Giles came over and took the book away. Dawn looked annoyed. Giles gestured with the book and walked off.  
Willow and Tara were at the round table looking at a book together and taking notes. Buffy was sitting beside Tara, sketching on a pad.  
Giles came over and held a large one in Buffy’s line of sight. Then he gestured with his hand toward the back and walked away.  
Buffy put down her sketch pad, got up, and followed Giles toward the workout room taking off her sweater as she went.  
That night, Buffy was patrolling in the graveyard. She walked along, looking around.   
Suddenly, she began to sing.  
“Every single night, the same arrangement  
I go out and fight the fight  
Still I always feel this strange estrangement  
Nothing here is real, nothing here is right.”  
A vampire appeared from behind a gravestone. It rushed Buffy.  
She spun him around and continued to sing.  
“I’ve been making shows of---“She punched the vamp. “trading blows, just hoping no one knows---“ she kicked and grabbed the vamp. She threw him behind her. “that I’ve been going through the motions  
Walking through the part---“  
Buffy pulled a stake from her jacket pocket. The vamp attacked her from behind and she staked him without looking back.  
“Nothing seems to penetrate my heart  
I was always brave, and kind of righteous  
Now I find I’m wavering---“  
Two vampires and a demon were gathering near a tree with a human tied to the tree. The vamp saw Buffy and attacked.  
“Crawl out of you grave, you’ll find this fight just---“she punched a vamp.  
“Doesn’t mean a thing---“she punched vamp two.  
“She ain’t got that swing,” vamp one sang. It punched Buffy and she went down. A sword was stuck in the ground beside her.  
She layed there on her back. Crickets started chirping.  
“Thanks for noticing,” she sang at the vamp.  
She continued laying there as the two vamps and the demon began to dance.  
“She does pretty well with fiends from hell  
But lately we can tell---“they sang. Buffy got up and grabbed the sword. “that she’s just going through the motions.”  
“Going through the motions,” the demon sang.  
Buffy pulled vamp one away, cut its head off with the sword.  
“Faking it somehow,” vamp two sang before she pushed him aside and stabbed the demon.  
“She's not even half the girl she---“the demon sang before looking down at his wound. “Ow,” it finished before falling over.  
Buffy continued walking, holding the sword.  
“Will I stay this way forever?  
Sleepwalk through my life’s endeavor?” Buffy continued.  
She used the sword to cut the ropes that were tied to the person to the tree. He came around the tree trunk. He was a very handsome man.  
“How can I repay---“he sang.  
“Whatever,” she sang back.  
She turned away, tossed the sword aside and continued walking.  
“I don’t want to beeeeee…”  
She walked up onto a raised platform ringed by statues and stopped.  
“Going through the motions  
Losing all my drive  
I can’t even see  
If this is really me  
And I just want to be---“  
Vamp two attacked her and she staked him. He exploded into dust which formed an artful cloud, obscuring Buffy from view, then cleared as she sang the final word.  
“Aliiiiiiive.”  
“Alive” ended.  
She now stood amidst the gravestones.  
The next day at the Magik Shoppe, the bell rang as Buffy entered.  
“Good morning, Buffy!” Giles greeted.  
Willow and Tara stood by the counter, Giles in the background.  
“Oh hey, did Dawn get off to school alright?” Willow asked.  
“What?” Buffy said, distracted. “Oh, uh, yeah. I think so.”  
Buffy walked farther into the store. Xander sat at the round table holding a donut in each hand.  
“Respect the cruller. And tame the donut!” Xander announced.  
Anya passed by the route to the counter.  
“That’s still funny, sweetie.”  
Anya went behind the counter. Giles looked in the box of donuts, took one out, and took a bite.  
“So, uh, no research? Nothing going on? Monsters or whatnot?” Buffy asked.  
Giles and Xander shook their heads “no” and continued eating donuts.  
“Good! Good,” Buffy said awkwardly. “Uh, so, did anybody…uh…last night, you know, did anybody, um…burst into song?”  
Giles stopped chewing and everybody stared at her for a moment.  
“Merciful Zeus!” Xander blurted.  
Willow, Tara, and Anya rushed over. Everyone started talking all at once.  
“We thought it was just us!” Willow exclaimed.  
“Well, I sang but I had my guitar at the hotel…” Giles said.  
“It was bizarre. We were talking and then it was like---“Tara started.  
“Like we were in a musical!” Buffy exclaimed.  
“Yeah!” Tara agreed.  
“That would explain the huge backing orchestra from the chaps,” Giles said.  
“We did a whole duet about dish washing,” Willow said.  
“And we were arguing and, and then everything rhymed and there were harmonies and the dance with coconuts,” Anya told them.  
“There was an entire verse about the couscous,” Willow said.  
“It was very disturbing,” Xander said.  
They stopped talking all at once.  
“What did you sing about?” Giles asked Buffy.  
“I don’t remember. But I-It seemed perfectly normal,” she said after a pause.  
“But disturbing. And not the natural order of things, and you think it’ll happen again?” Xander said.  
“I don’t know. I should look into it,” Giles said.  
“With the books,” Willow added.  
“Do we have any books on this?” Tara asked.  
“Well, we just got to break it down. Look at the factors before it happens again. Because I for one---“Xander said, but was interrupted when Giles started singing “I’ve Got a Theory.”  
“I’ve got a theory  
That’s it’s a demon  
A dancing demon!  
No, something isn’t right there.”  
“I’ve got a theory  
Some kid is dreamin’  
And we’re all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare,” Willow sang while Tara did “Jazzy Hands.”  
“I’ve got a theory we should work this out,” Xander sang.  
“It’s getting eerie, what’s this cheery singing all about?” Anya, Tara, Willow, and Xander sang all at once.  
Xander jumped up.  
“It could be witches!  
Some evil witches!” he started, but then saw Willow and Tara’s expressions.  
“Which is ridiculous, ‘cause witches they were persecuted,  
Wicca good and love the earth and woman power  
And I’ll be over here,” he finished and then sat back down.  
“I’ve got a theory! It could be bunnies!” Anya sang.  
There was silence.  
The others stared at her and there was a sound of crickets chirping.  
“I’ve got a---“Tara started, but then the tune changed to a frantic hard-rock beat with electric guitar and roving spotlight that waved crazily over Anya.  
She shrieked a la Alanis Morissette.  
“Bunnies aren’t just cute like everybody supposes!  
They’ve got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses!  
And what’s with all the carrots?  
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?”  
She played air guitar.  
“Bunnies!  
Bunnies!  
It must be bunnies!”  
Fireworks went off all around her, then the smoke cleared away.  
The others continued staring.  
It went back to the original melody.  
“Or maybe midgets,” she ended.  
Willow quickly sat down beside Giles and opened a book.  
“I’ve got a theory we should work this fast.”  
Willow and Giles sang, “Because it clearly could get serious before it’s passed.”  
Giles got up and started climbing the stairs to the loft.  
“I’ve got a theory  
It could be monks  
Evil monks  
But who cares?  
We can face anything  
If we try our best,” a new voice sang, which was Cordelia Chase.  
“I’ve got a theory  
It doesn’t matter,” Buffy sang.  
Giles paused and turned back. Everyone looked at Buffy.  
“What can’t we face if we’re together?  
What’s in this place we can’t weather?  
Apocalypse?  
We’ve all been there  
The same old tricks  
Why should we care?”  
Everyone sang except Giles.  
“What can’t we do if we get in it?  
We’ll work this through within a minute.”  
Buffy looked at Giles throughout the verse. He watched her too and finally joined in.  
“We have to try  
We’ll pay the price  
It’s do or die,” they all sang.  
“Hey, I’ve died twice,” Buffy intervened.  
Giles smiled and came down off the ladder.  
“What can’t we face if we’re together?” they all sang.  
“What can’t we face…” Giles sang, descant.  
“What’s in this place that we can’t weather?” they sang.  
“…if we’re together…” Giles sang, descant again.  
“There’s nothing we can’t face,” they sang.  
“Except for bunnies,” Anya ended, sitting.  
The song ended.  
“See, okay, that was disturbing,” Xander said, sitting.  
“I thought it was neat,” Willow said, sitting.  
“Very disturbing,” Cordelia said.  
“So what is it? What’s causing it?” Buffy asked.  
Cordelia started walking up to them.  
“I thought it didn’t matter,” Giles said.  
“Well, I’m not exactly quaking in my stylish yet affordable boots, but there’s definitely something unnatural going on here. And that doesn’t usually lead to hugs and puppies,” Buffy replied.  
“Well, is it just us? I mean, is it only happening to us?” Anya asked.  
Buffy turned away. “’Cause that would probably mean a spell or---“  
Buffy went to the door and opened it. The bell jingled.  
Buffy turned back into the store and closed the door.  
“It’s not just us.”  
“And nobody says a single ‘welcome home’?” Cordelia said.  
“What are you doing here?” Anya asked in attitude.  
“Anya,” Willow warned.  
“Nice voice,” Xander commented.  
“How long have you been here?” Buffy asked.  
“Long enough to hear Xander seeing about witches.” She raised an eyebrow at Anya. “Bunnies? How could bunnies be involved? They’re just adorable, innocent animals.”  
“Welcome. What can we do for you?” Xander asked his ex.  
“Willow, did you tell them? Do they know?”  
“They do, Cordelia.”  
“Good. We’re on the same page. Not that I saw anything. But still…”  
She walked up behind Xander and snagged a glazed donut.  
She took a bite, chewed and then swallowed.  
“Sugar. Goes straight to the source of the disappointment and pain.”  
“Since when do you eat donuts?” Xander asked.  
“Since I started fighting evil and making a run for it in LA.”  
She sat down and sighed, eating the donut.  
“You’re upset,” Tara said.  
She looked at Willow.  
“This is Tara?”  
“Yeah.”  
She smiled at Tara.  
“Hey, Tara. I’m Cordelia Chase.”  
“I’ve heard of you.”  
“That figures.”  
She looked at her ex.  
“Congratulations. I’m glad someone actually has a life.”  
She looked at the table.  
“What does that mean? Or supposed to mean?” Anya said all attitude.  
“An, don’t.”  
“Don’t what, Xander?”  
“Don’t do it to her. She has changed. I can see it. She’s not even striking out or being bitchy to you, even though you’re being bitchy to her,” Buffy said.  
Anya and Buffy stood in front of each other.  
Cordy rubbed her temples with her fingers, eyes closed. She wished the arguing would stop.  
Willow and Tara both went behind the counter toward the back.  
Xander stood up and walked around to stand behind his ex and bent down to massage her shoulders.  
“What’s wrong? Do you have a headache?” he whispered by her ear.  
“Yeah. They’re causing it,” she murmured to him.  
“We can leave if you want.”  
“I’d love that, but your fiancée would hate it.”  
“Well, I think Willow and Tara went to get something for the pain.”  
“I think that’s quite enough, girls,” Giles said, raising his voice at the Slayer and ex-demon.  
“She started it,” Buffy said.  
“Not my fault,” Anya said. “Seeing the bitch brings everything to the surface.”  
Giles sighed and then left.  
Buffy gave her a look.  
“What?”  
“Anya, go home before you make it worse,” Xander told her.  
“I’m staying.”  
“You’re going to hurt her with more of your bickering. Go home, Anya. I’ll see you tonight.”  
Willow and Tara came back.  
“We don’t have anything for the pain. We’ll have to get some from Buffy’s,” Willow said softly to the two exes.  
“On your way out, take Anya home. The arguing is causing the headache,” Cordy said.  
“Okay. We can do that,” Tara said.  
Willow grabbed Anya’s arm.  
“Let’s go.”  
“I’ll go see if I can find anything out,” Buffy said.  
Xander and Cordy were now the only ones left in the store.  
“The console in the car outside. There should be Aspirin and Ibuprofen. Grab that and a water bottle.”  
He went to the car, grabbed the stuff, and then came back.  
He knelt by her.  
“Two Ibuprofen pills for the headache. One for my aches and pains.”  
He gave them to her and then set the bottle in front of her. She took the pills and then drank some water. She then finished her donut and looked at him.  
“Thanks, Xan.”  
“You’re welcome.”  
They both stood up.  
They looked at each other and then started to dance and sing.  
“Do you remember?  
How we used to laugh?  
How we used to tease each other?  
Do you remember?  
How we loved to love each other?  
How we loved to hate each other?  
Do you remember?  
Our fights  
Breakups  
And then our kisses and makeups?  
We were in love  
There was so much love to have  
I remember it all  
Even the broom closets  
I haven’t forgotten  
Especially when I still love you,” she sang to him with seriousness.  
“She walks into the room  
Every eye is on her  
It doesn’t faze her  
She smiles her number one smile  
She keeps walking  
They keep staring  
She’s the most beautiful  
She’s flawless  
Everything she says  
Goes  
That’s how it’ll always go,” he sang.  
“I once was Queen C of Sunnydale High  
But  
I had to confess  
I couldn’t hold back  
From you  
I wasn’t all that tough  
It was only an act  
We both always knew that  
But  
I kept on  
Like all my sheep  
Until  
I stood up to the plate  
Against Harmony  
And walked away  
To show how much I loved you, “she sang.  
“She’s incredible  
I can’t deny  
We’ll always be forever  
Like we were meant to be,” he sang.  
“I touch the fire  
And it freezes me  
I look into it  
And it’s burning bright  
Just like myself  
I once was a nightmare  
In Sunnydale High  
But changed  
In so many ways  
I was once the Queen  
Queen B  
Queen C  
Drama Queen  
And putting it plainly  
The Bitch of the year  
I was feared  
I was hated  
Nobody liked me  
Except you  
This fire  
This flame  
Burns for love  
Desire  
Passion  
And everything else  
You ever made me feel  
Even fear  
Fear itself  
Whenever you got hurt  
Or I thought you would get hurt,” she sang.  
Both finished the last part.  
“My love is deeper than the river  
Higher than the mountains  
Shallower than the hollow  
And always forever  
Will be  
My love is compassionate  
My love is desirable  
My love is strong  
My love is exciting  
May my love  
Last forever and ever.”  
They looked at each other.  
“Okay. Very disturbing,” he announced.  
“Very,” she agreed.  
“One question, though. You still love me?”  
“Yeah. Do you?”  
“Yeah.”  
“You think I’m still beautiful and incredible?”  
“Of course.”  
They smiled at each other.  
Later that day, Dawn entered the store with a huge smile. “Oh my God. You will never believe what happened at school today.”  
The gang was sitting around the table looking at books.  
“Everybody started singing and dancing?” Buffy guessed.  
Dawn looked disappointed.  
“I gave birth to a pterodactyl.”  
“Oh my God, did it sing?” Buffy asked.  
Willow and Tara were whispering to each other.  
“So you guys too, huh?” Dawn asked, walking closer.  
“So what’d you guys sing about?” Xander asked.  
“Math,” Dawn said, sighing.  
Dawn put down her backpack and sat on a stool by the counter. Willow whispered in Tara’s ear.  
“Tha-That’s right! The, the volume. The text,” Tara exclaimed loudly.  
“What text?” Giles asked.  
The volume-y text. You know? The, the,” Willow said and then mumbled the word “report.”  
“The what now?” Xander asked.  
“Oh, there’s just a few volumes back at the house that deal with mystical chants, bacchanals.  
Dawn glanced at the counter, seeing a necklace there.  
“It might be relevant,” Tara said.  
“Yeah, we could, um---“Will started, but Giles intervened.  
“Well, I’m a hair’s breadth from investigation bunnies at the moment, so I’m open to anything.”  
Dawn furtively picked up the necklace and put it in her pocket.  
“Great, well, uh, go check it out and uh, we’ll give you a call,” Willow said.  
“Yeah, this could blow the whole thing wide open,” Tara said.  
They then left.  
“Dawn, put that back,” Cordy said.  
“Put what back?” Dawn asked innocently.  
“I’m a Seer, Dawn. I metaphorically have eyes in the back of my head. You know what I mean.”  
Dawn sighed.  
“Now,” Cordy said.  
Dawn reluctantly put it back.  
“Thank you,” she said, and then went back to drawing pictures of things.  
Willow and Tara walked through a park. It was sunny and beautiful. Green grass, blue sky, etc.  
“Do we have any books at all at home?” Tara asked.  
“Well, who wants to be cooped up on a day like this? The sun is shining, there’s song going on…”  
A couple of young men walked by and looked at Willow and Tara as they passed.  
“…those guys are checking you out,” Willow said.  
“What?” Tara said. She turned to look. “Wh-what are they looking at?”  
“The hotness of you, doofus.”  
“Those boys really thought I was hot?” She looked back at them again.  
“Entirely.”  
“Oh my God. I’m cured! I want the boys!”  
Tara made like she was going to run after the guys. Willow grabbed her and pulled her back. Tara giggled.  
“Do I have to fight to keep you? ‘Cause I’m not large with the butch.”  
They stood underneath a tree, landing on a wooden railing.  
“I’m just…not used to that. They-they were really looking at me?”  
“And you can’t imagine what they see in you,” Will said fondly.  
“I know exactly what they see in me. You.”  
Tara sang “I’m Under Your Spell.”  
“I lived my life in shadow  
Never the sun on my face  
It didn’t seem so sad, though  
I figured that was my place  
Now I’m bathed in light,” Tara started. She walked out from the shade, lifting her face to the sun. She then continued.  
“Something just isn’t right  
I’m under your spell  
How else could it be  
Anyone would notice me?  
It’s magic, I can tell  
How you set me free  
Brought me out so easily.”  
Willow and Tara walked onto a bridge that had a little stream under it. Tara took her hand and walked off the bridge onto a path, holding hands.  
“I saw a world enchanted  
Spirits and charms in the air.”  
Tara made a gesture with her arm and sparkles appeared, following her hand with a little tinkling noise.  
“I always took for granted  
I was the only one there.”  
Willow made some even more impressive sparkles with her hand, ending in a small shower of sparkles surrounding them both.  
They smiled at each other.  
“But your power shone  
Brighter than any I’ve known.”  
Tara spun away from Willow. Tara began to dance by a small pond at the edge of the grass.  
“I’m under your spell  
Nothing I can do  
You just took my soul with you.”  
A couple women that were sunbathing on the grass began dancing in sync with Tara.  
“You worked your charms so well  
Finally, I knew  
Everything I dreamed was true  
You made me believe.”  
“Ahhh, Ahhh, Ahhh…” the sunbathers sang.  
Willow and Tara spun around in each other's arms. They were suddenly in their bedroom and sat down on the bed. They looked lovingly at each other. The music and background continued.  
“The moon to the tide  
I can feel you inside  
I’m under your spell.” She layed down on the bed.  
“Surging with the sea.”  
Willow leaned over her and smiled.  
“Wanting you so helplessly  
I break with every swell.”  
Willow moved downward.  
“Lost in ecstasy  
Spread beneath my Willow tree  
You make me complete!”  
Tara’s body rose up and hovered over the bed.  
“You make me complete  
You make me complete  
You make me…”  
Back at the Magik Shoppe everyone was still looking at books.  
“I bet they’re not even working,” Xander said.  
“Who now?” Buffy questioned.  
“Willow and Tara. You see the way they were with each other? The get-a-roominess to them? I bet they’re,” he stopped himself, glancing at Dawn. “Singing. They’re probably singing right now.”  
“I’m sure Willow and Tara are making every effort,” Giles said.  
“Oh, yeah,” Xander said.  
“Xander,” Buffy said.  
“I think she’s old enough. You can say it, you know,” Cordy said.  
“Buffy, it’s okay. I do know about this stuff. Decides, it’s all kinda romantic,” Dawn said.  
“See? Told you,” Cordy said.  
“No it’s not!” Buffy and Xander exclaimed.  
“Come on! Songs, dancing around. What’s going to be wrong with that?” Dawn said.

Next Day

“You want some breakfast, baby?” Xander asked.  
They were still in bed.  
“You don’t have to go to work?”  
“Nah, I shut the crew down for the day. My guys start singing around me, I don’t know if I can deal. It’s a flab thing. So, waffles?”  
“Will you still make me waffles when we’re married?”  
“No, I’ll make them for myself but by California law, you will own half of them.” He kissed her. “Hey, how about omelets? I could do an omelet. I’ve almost got that---.”  
Xander continued talking unintelligently as Anya sat up and began to sing “I’ll Never Tell.”  
“This is the man I plan to entangle  
Isn’t he fine?  
My claim to fame was to maim and mangle  
Vengeance was mine!  
But I’m out of the biz  
The name I made, I’ll trade for his  
The only trouble is----“she paused and shook her head. “I’ll never tell.”  
Anya got up and walked off.  
Xander sat up in bed and began to sing.  
“She is the one  
She’s such wonderful fun  
Such passion and grace.”  
Anya returned and sat beside him to put on her slippers.  
Xander fondled her knee.  
“Warm in the night when I’m right in her tight---“he started and then caught himself. “Embrace! Tight embrace!”  
He hugged her.  
“I’ll never let her go.  
The love we’ve known can only grow  
There’s just one thing that----no  
I’ll never tell.”  
She put her slippers on.  
“’Cause there’s nothing to tell,” they both sang.  
They left the bedroom, emerging into the living room.  
“He snores,” she sang.  
“She wheezes.”  
“Say housework and he freezes.”  
Xander opened the fridge.  
“She eats these skeezy cheeses that I can’t describe.”  
He picked up a green cheese, sniffed it, and then made an “ew” face.  
“I talk, he breeze.”  
“She doesn’t know what ‘please’ is.”  
“His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe!”  
Xander looked annoyed and closed the fridge.  
“The vibe gets kind of scary,” they both sang.  
“Like she thinks I’m ordinary,” he sang.  
“Like it’s all temporary.”  
“Like her toes are kind of hairy.”  
They gave each other fake smiles.  
“But it’s all very well  
‘Cause God knows, I’ll never tell,” they both sang.  
Xander opened up the newspaper. The headline read  
MAYHEM CAUSED. MONSTERS CERTAINLY NOT INVOLVED, OFFICIALS SAY.  
“When things get rough, he just hides behind his Buffy!” she sang.  
Xander gave her a look.  
“Now look, he’s getting huffy  
‘Cause he knows that I know.”  
“She clings  
She’s needy  
She’s also really greedy  
She nev---“ he started to sing, but she cut him off.  
“His eyes are beady!”  
“This is my verse, hello!  
She---“  
Anya began to dance in flapper style.  
“Look at me! I’m dancing crazy!” she said.  
Xander joined the dance and they danced together around the apartment.  
“You know…” they both sang.  
“You’re quite the charmer,” he sang.  
“My knight in armor.”  
“You’re the cutest of the Scoobies  
With your lips as red as rubies  
And your firm yet supple---“  
He caught himself again.  
“Tight embrace!”  
They resumed dancing and then went to opposite sides of the dining room table and sat.  
“He’s swell.”  
“She’s sweller.”  
“He’ll always be my feller.”  
“That’s why I’ll never tell her that I’m petrified.”  
She sang the next part.  
“I’ve read this tale  
There’s a wedding, then betrayal  
I know there’ll come the day I’ll want to run and hide.”  
They got up and crawled across the table toward each other.  
“I lied  
I said it’s easy  
I’ve tried  
But these fears I’ve can’t quell.”  
They sat with their backs pressed against each other.  
“Is she looking for a pot of gold?”  
“Will I look good when I’ve gotten old?”  
She stood up.  
“Will our lives become too stressful if I’m never that successful?” Xander sang.  
“When I get so worn and wrinkly  
That I look like David Brinkley?”  
They got up and resumed dancing.  
“Am I crazy?” he sang.  
“Am I dreamin’?” she sang.  
“Am I marrying a demon?” he sang.  
“We could really raise the beam  
I’m making marriage a hell!” he sang.  
“So, thank God, I’ll never tell!  
I swear that I’ll never tell!” they sang.  
They walked around the table toward the couches in the living room area.  
“My lips are sealed,” he sang.  
“I take the fifth.”  
“Nothing to see  
Move it along,” he sang.  
“I’ll never tell!” they finished.  
They both fell back onto the couch, clutching each other and laughing fake Hollywood-musical laughs.  
The song ended.  
That night, Buffy entered Spike’s crypt.  
Spike emerged from his underground lair. “The sun sets and she appears.” He climbed up the rest of the way. “Come to serenade me?”  
“So you know what’s going on.”  
“Well, I’ve seen some damn funny things in the last two days. A six hundred pound Chirago Demon making like Yuma Sumac, that one will stay with you. I remain immune, happy to say.” He held up a bottle of whiskey. “Drink?”  
“A world of no.” She sat down. “So any idea what’s causing this?”  
Spike was disappointed. “Oh. So that’s all. You’ve just come to pump me for information.”  
“What else would I want to pump you for?” She cringed. “I really just said that, didn’t I?”  
“Yeah, well…don’t wanna bore you with the small talk.” He walked to the door, opened it, and then turned to Buffy. “Don’t know a thing.”  
She frowned. “What’s up? You’re all bad moody.”  
“Nothing. Glad you could stop by.”  
He made a gesture toward the door. Buffy stayed seated, looking at him.  
“It’s nothing,” he said defensively.  
“What?”  
“Rest In Peace” started.  
“I died  
So many years ago.”  
He looked surprised to hear himself singing. Buffy rolled her eyes.  
“But you can make me feel  
Like it isn’t so.”  
He shook his head and closed the door.  
“And why you come be with me  
I think I finally know  
Mmm, mmm  
You’re scared  
Afraid what you feel.”  
Buffy stopped looking at him.  
“And you can’t tell the ones you love  
Know they wouldn’t deal.”  
She looked at him and frowned.  
“Whisper in a dead man’s ear  
It doesn’t make it real.”  
He pointed to his head.  
Buffy looked at him and then away. Spike rolled his eyes in annoyance.  
“That’s great  
But I don’t wanna play.”  
He walked over to a coffin.  
“’Cause being with you  
Touches me more than I can say  
But since I’m only dead to you.”  
He jumped to sit on the coffin.  
“I’m saying stay away.”  
He layed down on the coffin and crossed his arms over his chest.  
“And let me rest in peace.”  
Spike jumped up and the song took on an angry rock beat for the refrain.  
“Let me rest in peace  
Let me get some sleep.”  
He grabbed the whiskey bottle and threw it against a wall. Buffy jumped up.  
“Let me take my love and bury it  
In a hole six foot deep  
I can lay myself down.”  
He advanced on Buffy.  
“But I can’t find my sweet release.”  
He turned away from her with an angry gesture.  
“So let me rest in peace!”  
Buffy looked annoyed and turned toward the door, but Spike intercepted her.  
“You know  
You’ve got a willing slave.”  
He got down on his knees.  
“And you just love to play the part  
That you might misbelieve.”  
Buffy rolled her eyes.  
“But ‘til you do  
I’m telling you.”  
He stood up.  
“Stop visiting my grave  
And let me rest in peace.”  
Spike yanked the door open again. A group of men were carrying a coffin along in the graveyard. A few dozen yards away Spike and Buffy were walking along side-by-side.  
“I know I should go  
But I follow you like a man possessed  
There’s a traitor here beneath my breast.”  
He exchanged a look with her.  
“And it hurts me more than you’ve ever guessed.”  
He looked at her.  
“If my heart could beat, it would break my chest.”  
They stopped walking.  
“But I can see you’re unimpressed.”  
He angrily sang, “So leave me be.”  
He jumped onto the coffin that was being carried by the men.  
“And let me rest in peace  
Let me get some sleep.”  
The pail barriers tipped the coffin and Spike tumbled off the end of it, bouncing to his feet and shifting his game face…  
“Let me take my love and bury it  
In a hole six foot deep.”  
He rampaged through the mourners, tossing their folding chairs aside. The people scattered.  
“I could lay my body down  
But I can’t find my sweet release…”  
He grabbed the priest and stared at him. Buffy came up behind him, grabbed him, and turned him around.  
Spike and Buffy tumbled backward into the open grave. Spike landed on his back with Buffy on top of him. He had his human face on now.  
“Let me rest in peace  
Why won’t you let me rest in peace?”  
The song ended.  
They were still on top of each other. She stared at him for a moment before getting off of him, leaping out of the grave, and running off. Spike poked his head up out of the grave to watch her go.  
“So…you’re not saying then?”  
Later that night, Sweet’s minions captured Dawn. She woke up on the pool table in the Bronze. Sweet and his minions started tap dancing.  
“Why’d you run away  
Don’t you like my…style?” Sweet sang, starting “That’s What It’s All About.”  
“Why don’t you come and play? I guarantee a…”  
He reached up to his face, pulled off his mouth and held the disembodied mouth in Dawn’s face. She stared in shock as it continued to sing.  
“…great big smile.”  
The mouth disappeared from his hand and reappeared in its normal place.  
“I come from the imagination  
And I’m strictly by your invocation.” He held up a scroll covered with writing.  
“So what do you say?  
Why don’t we dance awhile?”  
He danced over to Dawn, gestured at her, and then danced away again.  
“I’m the hot swing  
I’m the twist and shout.”  
He tap danced.  
“When you gotta sing  
When you gotta…let it out  
You call me and I come a running.”  
He danced back toward Dawn.  
“I turn the music on  
I bring the fun in  
Now we’re partyin’  
That’s what it’s all about.”  
He chuckled.  
“’Cause I know…what you feel, girl. I know just how what you feel, girl.”  
“So…you’re like a good demon? Bringing the fun in?” she asked.  
He laughed and shook his head “no.”  
“All these melodies  
They go too long  
Then that energy  
Starts to come on way too strong  
All those hearts laid open, that must sting   
Plus, some customers just start combusting.”  
He opened the door and a charred smoking corpse fell through it. Dawn stared in horror.  
“That’s the penalty,” he sang, dancing back over to her.  
“When life’s but a song  
You brought me down into this town  
So, when we blow this scene  
Back we will go to my kingdom below  
And you will be my queen  
‘Cause I know what you feel, girl.”  
“No,” Dawn sang. “You see  
You and me  
Wouldn’t be regal.”  
“I’ll make it real girl,” he sang.  
“What I mean  
I’m fifteen  
So this queen thing’s illegal,” she sang  
“I can bring whole cities to ruin  
And still have time to get a soft shoe in.”  
“Well, that’s great,” she sang.  
“But I’m late  
And I’d hate to delay her.”  
“Something’s cooking, I’m at the griddle,” he sang.  
“I bought Nero his very first fiddle.”  
“She’ll be pissed,” she sang.  
If I’m missed  
See, my sister’s the Slayer.”  
The song ended.  
“The Slayer?”  
“Yuh-huh.”  
Sweet looked at his minions. “Find her. Tell her…tell her everything. Just get her here. I want to see the Slayer burn.”  
Dawn looked alarmed.  
“Now we’re partying. That’s what it’s all about.”  
Buffy and Giles were in the workout room. She kicked a piece of wood in two.  
Giles started singing “Standing In The Way.”  
“You’re not ready for the world outside  
You keep pretending  
But you can’t hide.”  
He picked something up from the weapons case.  
“I know I said I’d be by your side.”  
He walked towards Buffy.  
“But I…”  
Giles threw a small knife at Buffy. She leaned backward and let it fly past her.  
“Your path’s unbeaten and it’s all uphill.”  
He threw another at her and she deflected it with a hand.  
“And you can meet it  
But you never will.”  
He walked back toward the weapons.  
“And I’m the reason that you’re standing still.”  
He looked at her as she stood waiting.  
“But I…”  
He walked back, threw another, and Buffy kicked it aside in slow-motion.  
“I wish I could say the right words  
To lead you through this land.”  
Buffy was still kicking in slo-mo.  
“Wish I could play the father  
And take you by the hand.”  
He reached out his hand and then pulled it back.  
“Wish I could stay here  
But now I understand.”  
He walked closer to her as she did a handspring and then split in slo-mo.  
“I’m standing in the way  
The cries around you  
You don’t hear at all  
‘Cause you know I’m here  
To take that call  
So you just lie there  
When you should be standing tall  
But I…  
I wish I could layer your arms down  
And let you rest at last  
Wish I could slay the demons  
But now that time is passed  
Wish I could stay here  
Your statwart  
Standing fast  
But I’ve been standing in the way  
I’m just standing…in the way.”  
The song ended.  
She returned to regular speed.  
“Did you just say something?” she asked.  
Tara was looking through a book and holding the “Forgetting” herb in her hand in the loft. She began to sing “Wish I could stay” in the same melody as the previous song.  
“I’m under your spell  
God, how can this be?  
Playing with my memory  
You know I’ve been through hell  
Willow, don’t you see?  
There’ll be nothing left of me  
You made me believe.”  
Giles came from the back, overlapping Tara’s last word.  
“Believe me, I don’t wanna go,” he sang.  
And it’ll grieve me  
‘Cause I love you so,” they both sang the last verse.  
“But we both know,” they sang again.  
Tara came down the stairs and Giles sat at the table as they sang. As they sang together, they overlapped each other.  
Giles: Wish I could  
Tara: Wish I could trust  
Giles: Say the right  
Tara: That it was just  
Giles: words  
Tara: This once  
Giles: to lead you  
Tara: But I must do  
Giles: through this  
Tara: what I must  
Giles: land  
Tara: I can’t adjust to  
Giles: wish I could  
Tara: this disgust  
Giles: play the  
Tara: we’re done and I  
Giles: father  
Tara: just  
Giles: and take you by the hand  
“Wish I could stay,” they sang at once.  
Giles stood up.  
“Wish I could stay  
Wish I could stay,” Giles sang.  
They both walked toward the front of the store.  
“Wish I could stay…” they ended.  
Anya and Xander were having another fight at their apartment.  
Cordy was trying to ignore them, as she flipped through a Glamor magazine. It made her remember her fights with Xander, as she sat on the couch.  
“Moron!” Anya yelled.  
“I’m not a moron!” he yelled back.  
“Yes you are! You want to be married, but with no kids! How am I supposed to live without kids!?”  
“You’ll manage it!”  
“Right! Like you can manage to not go all googly eyes on Cordelia!”  
“I’m a guy! It’s bound to happen!”  
“And she’s your ex!”  
She sighed. This had gone on long enough. She got up.  
Suddenly, she staggered back under the weight of a vision.  
She put a hand to her temple and blindly reached out to grab the round end table.  
She screamed in pain, eyes closed.  
The noise interrupted their fight in the kitchen. Anya went to the bedroom and slammed the door, while Xander rushed to his ex. It was his first time of seeing her have a vision, but Wills had told him a lot.  
The table fell over on the floor along with her, so she was now on the floor while having a vision.  
He grabbed her upper arm and sat her on the couch, the end table temporarily forgotten.  
He knelt in front of her and waited for it to end. He grabbed a bottle of Aspirin and water from the floor where everything had fallen. He set them in front of both of them.  
When it had ended, he took her hands in his.  
“What did you see?” he asked gently.  
“Dawn…a singing demon…they’re at the Bronze. The demon’s name is Sweet. I recognize him from one of Wesley’s books.”  
He gave her a couple pills, she took them, and then she drank some water from the bottle he gave her.  
“You didn’t say anything about Sweet. Why not?” he said.  
“Well, it’s like, whatever I say goes unheard around here. They don’t pay attention. They keep talking like…like I’m not here at all. It’s like I don’t exist. And you two. You’re always fighting. So why say anything?”  
He sat beside her.  
“You don’t know where you fit in or belong anymore,” he guessed.  
“Exactly. I had my place beside you when I joined. Then there was me assisting Angel in LA. And now I’m back after he fired all of us, and I don’t know my spotlight. I don’t even know why I’m still a Seer since I got fired.”  
“You know something? I don’t always know my place, either. I’m useful mostly for my jokes and I’m engaged to an ex-Vengeance Demon. It gets boring after a while. I understand.”  
“You haven’t lived my life. How do you understand, Xan?”  
“Because I’m always on the sidelines. Nobody will ever know how much hard it is, not even Buffy, for the rest of us, Cor. I see things that nobody else sees because nobody is watching me. I’m always standing so close to the spotlight, but I never step into it.”  
He stood up and she did likewise.  
He kissed her forehead.  
“We going?”  
“Yeah,” she answered him.  
Buffy was close to the Bronze a few minutes later. She saw a trash can. There was a bit of fire on it. She stood by it and started singing “Walk Through Fire.”  
She held her hand out to the fire.  
“I touch the fire  
And it freezes me  
I look into it  
And it’s black  
Why can’t I feel?”  
She looked at her hand.  
“My skin should crack and peel.”  
She turned to glare the way she had come.  
“I want the fire back!  
Now through the smoke  
She calls to me  
To make my way across the flame  
To save the day  
Or maybe melt away  
I guess it’s all the same  
So I will walk---“she started walking down the street. “through the fire  
‘Cause where else can I turn?  
I will  
Walk through the fire  
And let it---“  
Spike sat in an alley smoking a cigarette. He joined in.  
“The torch is scorching me  
Buffy’s laughing I’ve no doubt.”  
He took a drag.  
“I hope she fries  
I’m free if that bitch dies!”  
He tossed his cigarette away angrily and then jumped up.  
“I better help her out.”  
He started walking.  
“’Cause she is drawn to the fire,” Sweet sang in the Bronze.  
“Some people.”  
“She will,” Spike sang.  
“Never learn,” Spike and Sweet sang.  
Spike was still walking down the street.  
Sweet stood up in the Bronze.  
“And she will  
Walk through the fire  
And let it---“they both sang.  
Willow and Tara sat at the table in the Magik Box, not looking at each other.  
Giles stood behind the counter.  
“Will this do a thing to change her?  
Am I leaving Dawn in danger?  
Is my Slayer too far gone to care?” Giles sang.  
“What if Buffy can’t defeat it?” Xander sang.  
“Beady Eyes is right, we’re needed!” Anya sang. “Or we could just sit around and glare.”  
She looked at Willow and Tara.  
Giles came out from behind the counter and gave Willow and Tara a look, they got up, and everyone walked toward the door.  
“We’ll see it though  
It’s what we’re always here to do  
So we will  
Walk through the fire,” the gang and Cordelia sang.  
Buffy walked along in an alley.  
“So one by one  
they turn from me  
I guess my friends can’t face the cold,” the Slayer sang.  
“What can’t we face…,” Tara sang.  
“But why I freeze  
Not one among them knows,” Buffy sang.  
“If we’re together?” Tara finished.  
“And never can be told,” Buffy sang.  
“She came from the grave much graver,” Anya sang.  
“So one by one  
They turn from me,” Buffy sang.  
“The distant redness as their guide,” Sweet sang.  
“Going through the motions,” Buffy sang.  
“First he’ll kill her  
Then I’ll save her,” Spike sang.  
“That single flame  
Ain’t what they had in mind  
It’s what they have inside,” Sweet sang.  
“Walking through the part,” Buffy sang.  
“Everything is turning out so dark,” Tara sang.  
“No  
I’ll save her  
Then I’ll kill her,” Spike sang.  
“I think this line’s mostly filler,” Willow sang.  
“What’s it gonna take  
To strike a spark?” Giles sang.  
“These endless days  
Are finally ending in a blaze,” Buffy sang.  
“She will come to me,” Sweet sang.  
“And we are caught  
In the fire,” everybody except Sweet sang.  
Buffy still walked down the street alone.  
“The point of no return  
So we will walk through the fire.”  
The Scoobies and Cordy walked down the street. A fire engine went by behind them with lights flashing.  
“And let it  
Burn  
Let it burn.”  
Spike jumped over a fence in an alley.  
“Let it burn  
Let it burn!”  
Buffy kicked down the door of the Bronze and it smashed to pieces.  
“Show time!” Sweet said, chuckling.  
Buffy walked in.  
She looked around to see Sweet and Dawn sitting in a chair on the stage.  
“I love a good entrance,” he said.  
“How are you with death scenes?”  
He chuckled.  
Buffy walked a little closer.  
“You got a name?” she asked, even though she knew from Cordelia and Xander.  
“I’ve got a hundred.”  
“Well, I ought to know what to call you if you’re gonna be my brother-in-law.”  
“Buffy, I swear I didn’t do it.”  
“Don’t worry. You’re not going anywhere,” she said. Sweet looked at Buffy. “I am,” he added.  
“What?” Dawn questioned.  
Sweet looked interested and sat forward.  
“Deal’s this,” Buffy told him. “I can’t kill you? You take me to Hellsville in her place.”  
He scoffed. “What if I kill you?”  
“Trust me. Won’t help.”  
“Hm. That’s gloomy!”  
“That’s life.”  
He chuckled. “Come now, is that really what you feel? Isn’t life a miraculous thing?”  
“I think you already know.”  
Buffy started to sing “Life.”  
“Life's a show  
And we all play our parts  
And when the music starts.”  
She unbuttoned her jacket and opened it.  
“We open up our hearts.”  
She dropped it to the floor.  
“It’s all right  
If some things come out wrong.”  
She looked over to see the minions holding pool cues.  
“We’ll sing a happy song  
And you can sing along.”  
The minions attacked.  
“Where there’s life.” She grabbed a pool cue from a minion and hit him.  
“There’s hope  
Every day’s.” She elbowed the second minion. “a gift  
Wishes can.” She kicked it.  
“Come true  
Whistle while.” She punched it.  
“You work.” She made a blow with a pool cue.  
“So hard.” She made another blow.  
“All day.” She threw the pool cue and impaled the third minion.  
“To be like others girls.”  
The gang rushed in.  
“To fit in this glittering world.”  
Sweet watched and listened.  
“Don’t give me songs,” she sang.  
“She needs backup. Anya, Tara,” Giles said.  
“Don’t give me songs,” she continued.  
Anya and Tara took up positions behind her as her backup singers and dancers. The three of them moved in sync.  
“Give me something to sing about.”  
“Ahhhhh…” Anya and Tara sang.  
“I need something to sing about.”  
“Ahhhhh…” Anya and Tara continued.  
“Life's a song  
You don't get to rehearse  
And every single verse  
Can make it that much worst.”  
Anya and Tara stopped dancing.  
Buffy put up her hands as if to shield herself from her friends.  
“Still my friends  
Don’t know why I ignore  
The million things or more  
I should be dancing for  
All the joy  
Life sends  
Family  
And friends  
All the twists  
And bends  
Know that  
It ends  
Well that  
Depends  
On if they let you go.”  
She looked about the Scoobies and Cordy.  
“And if they know enough to know.”  
She walked up the steps to the stage.  
“That when you’ve bowed  
You leave the crowd.”  
She walked onto the stage, looked back at the others, then at  
Sweet still sitting. He made his string-pulling gesture.  
Buffy walked right up to him.  
“There was no pain  
No fear  
No doubt  
‘Til they pulled me out of heaven.”  
She looked back at the others.  
Giles and Xander looked surprised.  
“So that’s my refrain.”  
Willow looked horrified.  
“I live in hell.”  
Xander looked horrified.  
“’Cause I’ve been expelled  
From Heaven  
I think I was in Heaven.”  
Willow looked horrified.  
“So give me something to sing about.”  
She whirled around to look at Sweet.  
“Please  
Give me something…”  
Sweet shook his head.  
She gave a desperate look, turned and flipped off the stage onto the floor. Buffy danced faster and faster.  
Dawn watched in dismay.  
Sweet leaned forward expectantly.  
Buffy spun wildly round and round and round, smoke beginning to curl off her.  
Suddenly Spike appeared, stopping her by grabbing her upper arms.  
She gave him a desperate unhappy look.  
“Life’s not a song  
Life isn’t bliss  
Life is just this  
It’s living,” Spike sang.  
He brushed her hair back from her face.  
“You’ll get along.”  
Dawn stood up.  
“The pain that you feel  
You only can heal  
By living.”  
She looked like she was about to cry.  
“You have to go on living  
So one of us is living.”  
She stared at him. Dawn walked forward to the edge of the stage.  
“The hardest thing in this world…is to live in it,” Dawn said.  
She looked at Dawn and then back at Spike.  
Tara tried to comfort Willow.  
The song ended.  
Sweet applauded.  
“Now that was a show stopping number.”  
Buffy and Spike looked at him.  
“Not quite the fireworks that I was looking for,” Sweet finished.  
“Get out of here,” Willow said.  
“Mm, I smell power,” he said, standing. “I guess the little missus and I should be on our way.”  
Dawn backed away from him in fear and sat back down.  
“That’s never going to happen,” Giles said.  
He chuckled. “I don’t make the rules. She summoned me.”  
“He keeps saying that. I didn’t.”  
“You have my talisman on, sweet thing.”  
He touched the necklace she was wearing.  
She cringed in fear, cowering away from him.  
“Ah, but, no, I, I, um, uh, this, at, at the Magik Box, on the floor, I was, I was cleaning, and I…forgot…but…I didn’t summon anything,” Dawn said nervously.  
“If it was in the shop…then one of us probably…” Giles said.  
They looked around at each other.  
“Xander…” Cordy said.  
Everyone got the hint.  
“Xander!?” Anya yelled.  
“Well, I didn’t know anything was gonna happen! I just thought there were gonna be dances and songs. I just wanted us to work out. Get a happy ending.”  
Sweet chuckled. “I think everything worked out just fine. Big smiles everyone. You beat the bad guys.”  
He did a quick spin.  
They watched as he turned into a ball of light that swirled around their hands leaving a sparkly trail.  
Everyone stood around looking kind of shell-shocked excluding the ex-Cordette.  
Dawn walked across the stage in foreground with the others in the background.  
Dawn started singing “Where Do We Go From Here?”  
“Where do we go…from here?”  
She walked the steps and down.  
Buffy and Spike echoed her.  
“The battle’s done  
And we kind of won,” Giles sang.  
“So we sound our victory cheer  
Where do we go from here?” Giles and Tara sang.  
“Why is the path unclear  
When we know home is near?” Anya, Cordy, and Xander sang.  
They moved to stand in a line side-by-side.  
“Understand  
We’ll go hand in hand.”  
They joined hands.  
“But we’ll walk along in fear.”  
They released their hands and walked off in different directions.  
“Tell me!” Giles sang.  
“Where do we go from here?  
When does the end appear?” they sang.  
They made dance gestures with their arms.  
The middle of singing “appear”, Spike suddenly stopped, scoffed, and put his arm down.  
“Bugger this,” he said.  
He turned and left.  
It continued without him.  
“When do the trumpets cheer?  
The curtains close on a kiss  
And knows  
We can tell the end is near.”  
Buffy came out after him.  
“Hey.”  
“Where do we go from here?” it continued.  
“You should go back inside. Finish the big group song. Get your kum-ba-yayas out.”  
“I don’t want to.”  
“They day you say what you do want, they’ll probably be a big parade. Seventy-six bloody trombones.”  
“Spike…”  
“Look, you don’t have to say anything.”  
“I touch the fire and it freezes me,” she sang.  
Spike looked surprised.  
They walked toward each other.  
They overlapped each other, as they both sang.  
“I look into it and it’s black  
This isn’t real  
But I just want to feel,” she sang.  
“So many years ago  
But you can make me feel.”  
They walked up to each other, as they held the last note on “feel.”  
They finished the song and kissed passionately.  
“Where do we go from here?” the others ended.  
They continued to kiss.  
The song ended.  
A few minutes later, everyone but Xander and Cordelia walked out of the Bronze.  
She smacked him on the arm.  
“Ow!” he exclaimed.  
“Sorry if I hurt you, but you know better. Don’t you know what bad luck you have with magic?”  
“Yeah. I know.”  
“Don’t you remember the last time you did a spell that was anything of or associated with love?”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“Apology accepted.”  
Lights turned off and a couple spotlights shown on her and Xander.  
She walked around, as she sang her last song.  
“What’s life?  
The definition of life  
What is it?  
Well  
I reply  
My life was perfect  
Fabulous  
I was a cheerleader captain  
I was the leader of the Cordettes  
I was rich and popular  
A total bitch  
But above all  
One thing stood over all  
I had my boyfriend.”  
She smiled at him.  
“Life was simple  
Plain  
Easy for me  
Until I met my guy  
He was always a Scooby  
Then I came along  
We took each other under our wing  
We made each other's lives hard  
But we fought like hell  
And lived through hell  
That was our life  
Now  
Our life has changed  
We’ve somewhat moved on  
But who cares?  
We still love each other  
I’m a Seer  
He’s still my geek  
But unlike him  
Sometimes  
No  
Every night  
I would cry myself to sleep  
Because  
Well  
Life is hard without Doyle  
I would think  
What’s the point in living  
If you can’t live?  
What’s the point in forgiving?  
If you can’t forget?  
Life is life  
That’s what life is.”  
Xander walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.  
“What’s the point of living  
When all you have is  
Pain  
Hurt  
Sorrow  
And unforgiveness  
From past and present wounds?  
You lost a lot  
I know  
I was there  
Remember?  
I tried  
But you pushed me away  
All my support  
It felt  
Was all for nothing  
You wouldn’t heed or listen  
To what I said  
You didn’t even understand  
That I cared  
Even after that kiss  
You pushed me away  
It hurt  
But I never showed it  
I tried to explain  
But you never gave in  
You never let me explain,” he sang.  
“I’m sorry. I hurt you so many times. I didn’t know I was pushing you away. All I knew what the life I grew up on. Will you forgive me?” she said.  
“I’m sorry, too. Yes. I forgive you,” he replied.  
It looked like they were going to kiss, now standing face to face, but they didn’t. They hugged, instead.


	24. Demons Suck (Cordy's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S6E15 "Hell's Bells." Anya gets hurt by a demon. Can Cordy save her life? Read to find out.

It's a dark night in Sunnydale, California as I walk towards Fellings church where Xander and Anya will be getting married.  
Xander set an invitation to me. It's not the best weather, as I do. I don't know if it's the snowy weather, but things don't feel right.  
Suddenly, it hits me as strong as ever; a vision. I scream in pain, as images come to me. I lean against the church, eyes closed, fingers to my temples. I see a demon with a dagger. Then there's Anya being stabbed by him. Then he's gone and she's on the floor dying.  
When the vision ends, I go inside in search of her. If she can die, that means she's human. I wouldn't know, because I've been out of touch. I'd run inside, but I don't want to cause any alarm.  
By the time I find her in a dressing room, the demon is standing over her. I close the door and take out my sword. The demon strides over to me and growls before we face one another and I soon kill him.  
I rush towards and kneel down at her side. I set my sword down.  
"Cordelia?" she whispers.  
"Xander invited me to the wedding. Now hang on," I tell her.  
I pull the dagger out of her lower stomach and set it down on the floor. I then apply pressure to her wound with my jacket.  
"Hang in there. Stay with me, Anya."  
Soon, I have her taken care of and I get to watch them get married.


	25. Mitigater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S6 when Anya came back to Sunnydale. Anya gets into a car crash. Will someone find the injured human in time? Will she be saved? Read to find out.

It was a dark, cold, stormy night as Anya drove through the snowstorm. She was on her way towards her and Xander’s apartment. She had left Sunnydale to think about things, but now she was back.  
Suddenly, her car rolled and landed upside down in a ditch and her seatbelt tightened around her. She closed her eyes and waited for death to come for her.  
A few hours later, Cordelia Chase parked her car on the side of the road, seeing a car in the ditch. She got out, closed the door behind herself, and slid herself carefully down into the ditch.  
As soon as she opened the door, on her knees, she saw who it was.  
“Hang on, Anya. I’m coming.”  
She crawled inside the car and let loose the seatbelt. She then dragged her all the way back to van. She opened the sliding door and gently dragged the blond inside, closing the door behind them.  
She gently layed her down on the floor and knelt beside her. She took her gloves off and felt for a pulse on the side of her neck. She was alive. She took a cloth and dabbed it to the side of her face where dried blood was streaked. She had a few cuts on her face, too. A couple on her right cheeks and one on her forehead.  
After the brunette had the almost bride’s wounds cleaned and patched, she opened her eyes and shone a small light into them like a doctor would. She then closed them and put the light down. The almost bride was pale and freezing cold, so she gently dragged her in the passenger’s seat, a warm blanket on her.  
As the brunette drove her van, the blonde’s head rolled slowly from side to side.  
An hour later, as the Drama Queen pulled up in front of  
Xander’s parent’s house in the back, the former Anyanka groaned.  
Cordelia was going to get her safely to Xander’s basement.  
Hopefully, they still lived there.  
Anya Jenkins slowly opened her eyes to see Cordelia in the driver’s seat looking at her.  
“Are you feeling better now?”  
“Maybe. Vision is blurred and I feel a little shaky.”  
“You probably have a concussion. As for the shaking, you’re going into shock. Do you guys still live in the basement?”  
“No. Holly’s Inn Apartments. Apartment 4B.”  
With that, she drove through the blinding snow towards the apartment. It was crucial to get Anya safely home where she could take care of her. She had to hurry. A concussion and shock combined could kill her if she wasn’t taken care of ASAP.  
Half an hour later, Anya Jenkins lay in bed, Cordelia seated at her bedside. She had tended to her with all she had. It was the best she could do for her now. Xander wasn’t home yet. He was still at work. So he didn’t know what had happened.  
A few hours later, Anya was okay. So everybody lived as happily ever after as they could on the Hellmouth in Sunnydale.


	26. Together We Help One Another (Cordy, Xander, Anya, Buffy, Tara, Willow, Harmony, Spike, and Dawn's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set somewhere in S6. Anya and Xander are broken up, Tara and Willow are together, Buffy and Spike are together, Dawn has a crush on Spike, and Giles is retired and living in England. What happens when a certain brunette comes to their first high school reunion? What happens when a disaster strikes? Read to find out.

Cordelia Chase

It’s a dark night, as I enter the crowded gym of the newly built Sunnydale high school. It’s been three years, but I’m the one that has changed the most. There was a time in high school when I was a bitch, but I’ve changed in so many ways.  
When I see them, old memories come flooding back. Buffy, Xander, and Willow are at the food stand with Spike, Anya, and a couple girls I’ve never seen before. The only change in the small group is Giles being absent and Anya, the unfamiliar girls, and Spike being there.  
Xander wears blue jeans and a blue t-shirt, while Anya wears a flowered blouse and low heels with her blond hair down. Buffy wears a blue dress and low heels with her blond hair down, while Spike wears his usual black leather jacket, black pants and shoes, and has the same bleach blond hair that’s a little spikey. Willow wears a light-colored dress with low heels and her red hair down. I walk towards them in my red dress and low heels. My brunette hair is down and my purse is slung over my right shoulder. Harmony Kendall is at my right side with her blond hair down. She wears a blue t-shirt and white tennis shoes with blue jeans. She’s my best friend and a good vampire, though she doesn’t have a soul.  
“Are you sure about this, Cordelia?”  
“Yes. Don’t worry. They won’t kill you in front of everyone,” I reply.  
We stop in front of them and they look at us, as I smile warmly at them. I see them as my friends after everything we’ve been through together.  
“Hey, guys,” I greet cheerfully.  
“Cordelia,” Buffy greets back.  
“Glad to see you again,” Willow greets.  
“I didn’t know you were coming,” Anya greets.  
“Welcome back to the Hellmouth,” Xander greets.  
“Well, will you look what the bloody Hellmouth drug in,” Spike says.  
“It’s wonderful to see you all again,” I say.  
“Why’s she here?” Buffy asks.  
“Because this is a high school reunion and she was our classmate,” I answer.  
“I’ll go mingle with the others,” Harmony announces, before walking away.  
“So, would you like to catch me up on what I’ve missed?” I ask them.  
“Of course,” Willow replies.

Willow Rosenburg

I look at Cordelia, as we fill her in one by one. Then I introduce her to Tara.  
“Cordelia, this is Tara; my girlfriend. Tara, this is Cordelia. She’s an old classmate of ours.”  
“Nice to meet you, Tara. I’m happy for you. I was popular, rich, cheer captain, and a total bitch back in high school. I’ve changed, though,” she summarizes.  
“Y-you, t-too,” Tara greets.  
“So, what have you been doing for the last three years?” Xander asks.  
She tells us about her actress career, Angel saving her life from a vampire, Doyle, Doyle dying to save the world, the visions, Wesley and Gunn and Fred’s arrival, how Angel and the crew rescued her from Pylea, Darla being pregnant with Connor because of a prophecy, Darla staking herself to save everyone the trouble, Angelus turning Lilah, and Angel firing everyone.  
She takes a cracker from a plate on the table and eats it.

Xander Harris

Everyone is silent, until I speak.  
“Are you going to go back to LA after this?” I ask.  
“I don’t know. I miss it here. I might stay,” Cor replies.  
This thrills me.  
“If you do, welcome home.”

Buffy Summers

I can’t believe how much Cordelia has changed. I don’t know much about visions, but I’m guessing that’s what changed her.  
There’s something else, too; pain. I sense it with my Slayer senses. All I know is that she’s not a bitch anymore.

 

Anya Jenkins

I’m silent, as I watch everyone. She has to get rid of the visions or she’ll die from them. I don’t want Xander to know though, which is why I don’t say anything. Then Buffy introduces her to Dawn.  
Tara Maclay

I sense pain from her and it worries me. I see her aurora, which is why I’m worried. All the colors are blended together, and there’s more black and gray than anything. Gray means a certain amount of fading, while black means death and pain. This all sums up to two things. She’s dying and has and is suffering.

Spike a.k.a William the Bloody

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen her, but she has the same charm as she did a few years ago. Though, she isn’t a big fan of me. I’m the one that captured Red and Cordelia’s boyfriend. Now they’re exes because I captured them and they kissed. She hates me because I played a part in it.  
“Since it’s our reunion, why don’t we go do our thing? For old times, you know,” Cordelia suggests.  
“Great,” Xander says.  
“Yeah. We should,” Red says.  
“Stay here,” Buffy tells Dawn, before we walk off.

Harmony Kendall

I see them leave, but Dawn is left behind as usual. If I’m right, and I usually am these days, they’re going to go patrolling and Slaying together. I’m left behind too because they don’t tell me anything.  
I end my conversation with Amy, a good witch, about how she has been doing. Then I head over towards Dawn to keep her company. If Dawn gets bored, she can easily get into a life and death situation.  
Thirty minutes later, before I can reach Dawn, an earthquake starts. I then use my speed to reach her. Then, as she lays on the floor unable to keep her balance, I shield her from the earthquake, not caring if I get hurt.

Xander Harris

We’re all at the graveyard, when an earthquake starts. The ground shakes and cracks violently. We lose our balance and lay on the ground. Then Cordy shouts at us, as she gives us instructions.  
“Buffy, Spike, Willow, and Tara; go together and help people! Anya, Xander, and I will go together and find survivors! Let’s go!”  
I follow Anya and Cor, as we all go to obey our former Queen C.  
Half an hour later, as we walk through an old building, we’re as silent and careful as we can be. We start heading up the stairs cautiously, but it’s not enough. The stairs collapse from underneath us. Then everything goes black.

Anya Jenkins

When I slowly sit up, I’m in some pain. We’re in a steep hole, but it looks semi-easy to climb out. I ignore the pain I’m in, when I see Xander start to wake up. I crawl over to him and look down at him. We’re exes, but I still love him.  
“Xander?” I call to him.  
He looks up at me.  
“An.”  
He slowly sits up.  
“Are you okay?” he asks.  
“I’m fine. I’ll get us out of here. You should check on Cordelia.”  
I leave his side to head over to the rock pile to test it.

Cordelia Chase

As I lay on my back, I’m in pain. I’m silent though, until I hear Xander.  
“Cor?” he calls to me.  
“Xan,” I answer, and slowly open my eyes to look up at him.  
“Are you okay?” he asks me.  
“No,” I reply, knowing he can always tell if I’m lying to him.  
“What hurts?” he asks.  
“My head, right side, and left leg,” I reply.  
He scans with his eyes to look at the damage.  
“Cor,” he says.  
“That bad, huh?” I say, sensing his worry.  
“Yes. You’re wounded on your side, but your leg will be okay. I don’t know about your head. I’m not a doctor,” he answers me.  
“Is Anya okay?” I ask.  
“Yes.”  
“Then get her over here. She knows more.”  
He walks away from me to obey me.  
I close my eyes, feeling a little groggy. That’s when I know I’m in bad condition.  
A few minutes later, I hear Anya.  
“Oh, God. Cordelia, can you hear me?”  
“Anya,” I answer.  
I feel pressure on my side.  
Anya is probably trying to stop the bleeding.  
“Cordelia, stay with me,” she says.  
I feel a gentle hand rest on my forehead.  
“I’ll try,” I assure her in a half-whisper.  
“Good. Just try,” she encourages.  
I feel her take her hand away. Then I feel her sit me up, my back against her.  
“I think we can try it now,” I hear Xander announce.  
I feel Anya keep pressure on my side. Then I start to feel tired. I know if we don’t get out of here and back to the others, I’m going to die soon.

Xander Harris

I kneel beside Cor. I can tell that she’s weak and fighting for her life. We have to get out of here, or she’s going to die. If she dies, I don’t know what pieces of me will be left. Her death will shatter me.  
I have to keep her alive.  
“Cor, stay with me,” I plead.  
“We have to…get out of here…now,” she responds, eyes closed, head against An’s shoulder.  
An looks at me, silently telling me what we should do, while she ties her jacket around Cor’s waist securely to keep her from bleeding even more heavily.  
I nod, letting her know that I understand.  
I gently pick Cor up in my arms. As I do, Cor wraps her arms around my neck and rests her head on my shoulder. Then, together, we head out of the hole with Anya at my side.  
Once out of the building, we head towards Sunnydale High. I hope everyone is okay, though I could care less about Harmony. She’s a vampire, and I hate vampires with a very dark passion.  
Dawn Summers

I sit up and look at Harmony in dismay. The vampire that had once held me captive as bait for Buffy, had just risked getting hurt to try and keep me unharmed. She semi-succeeded, since I feel blood on my right temple and I’m in some pain.  
I slowly crawl over to her to help her, as to be careful not to get hurt worse.  
I kneel beside her and look down at her. She’s on her back with eyes closed, head to the left, blood on either side of her head. Her side and abdomen are bleeding heavily.  
“Harmony?” I call.  
I wait for a reply, but she doesn’t answer.  
I take my jacket off and tie it around her waist, as to try and slow or stop the bleeding.  
I look up to see Anya, Xander, and Cordelia arrive. Xander lays Cordelia down on the debris free floor, while Anya makes her way over to us.  
Once by us, she kneels down and looks at me.  
“What happened, Dawn?”  
“She did what she could to protect me, but she got hurt by some of the falling ceiling.”  
She looks down at her.  
“Her wounds need taken care of, or she won’t heal.”  
“What happened to Cordelia?” I ask.  
“Some stairs caved in on us. We fell and she got hurt. Her side is bleeding and I’m hurting a little. Don’t tell him, or he’ll worry without cause to,” she explains.  
“I won’t tell,” I promise her.  
“How about you?” she asks.  
“I’m in a little pain, but I’ll be okay,” I answer.  
A few hours later everyone is okay, Cordelia and Harmony live, and we all head home to me and Buffy’s. So we all live as happily as we can on the Hellmouth, while the construction workers get Sunnydale back how it should be.


	27. Seer To The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S6 of Buffy before “Seeing Red”. A certain brunette comes to town and tries her best to help out.

It was a beautiful day, as Buffy and Xander hugged.  
Inside the house, Willow and Tara were talking about magic. Tara thought Willow was addicted to magic. Willow stood in front of the window.  
Buffy and Xander let go.  
Suddenly, Warren walked into the yard and shot Buffy. He then started shooting like crazy. That’s when a brunette grabbed his wrist to try and twist the gun out of Warren’s hand. All Xander could do was stare at his ex. It was amazing. She was back in town and trying to save lives. That’s when he realized how much she had changed.  
Meanwhile, Willow fell to the floor after getting shot and the house caught on fire.  
Back outside, Buffy lay on her back also shot, Xander knelt beside her.  
“Buffy. Oh God.”  
He applied pressure to her wound, trying to stop the bleeding.  
The Seer tossed the gun, making it land by a faraway table.  
“Go away, Warren. If I see you again, you’re going to wish you were never born. Got me?”  
He nodded, her glaring sending chills down his spine.  
“Now get out of here.”  
He did as she said, running away.  
She knelt by the Slayer and felt for a pulse on the side of her neck.  
“She’s gone,” she told him, hand to her side.  
He moved to her side.  
“You’re hurt.”  
“Shot to be exact.”  
“I’ll get you some help.”  
He knelt behind her, ready to pick her up.  
She leaned back, resting her head on his shoulder.  
He looked into her eyes, as she tried to do the same. She was unfocused, though. He could tell. He was determined not to lose her, though. He couldn’t lose his Princess. Not like this. He also knew that she was looking to him to save her life like he used to. Her hazel eyes shoe it dimly.  
He rushed into the basement where he and Anya lived, carrying an unconscious Seer in his arms. He layed her gently on the bed and then took the kit from under it, as he applied pressure to stop the bleeding, praying for her not to die on him. He lost Buffy twice.  
He couldn’t watch his Princess die. It would break his heart into a zillion pieces.  
A few minutes later, her wound was taken care of.  
He checked for a pulse on the side of her neck.  
“I’m alive,” she said.  
He took his fingers away.  
Half an hour later, they rushed into the Summers’ residence.  
“Xander, go check on Tara. I’ll check on Willow.”  
He did so.  
She rushed to and knelt by the good witch, whom lay on her side, eyes closed.  
“Willow. Oh my God.”  
She gently rolled her onto her back and pulled her into her arms.  
She immediately realized that the witch was dying. She was knocking on Heaven’s door.  
“Wills, I’m sorry. Will, I forgive you of that kiss in senior year.”  
She stroked her hair and then kissed her forehead.  
She could only watch, as she took her last dying breath and went limp in her arms.  
She looked up at the ceiling.  
“PTB, please take care of her. You know how much she meant to us all.”  
She gently layed her down.  
She stood up and looked around, searching for the others. Then she saw them. Xander was knelt by an unconscious Tara.  
Avoiding the fire, she rushed over and knelt beside Tara. She felt for a pulse on the side of her neck. Alive.  
“Xander, go find Dawn. I’ll stay with Tara.”  
“Where’s Willow?”  
“Dead. I’m sorry. Now go. Please.”  
He did as he was gently ordered.  
“Tara, can you hear me? Sweetheart?” she called, as she felt her wrist, as she counted. “Come on. Wake up. We have to get out of here.”  
She felt around to see if she was hurt.  
“Cordelia?” Tara murmured, coming to.  
“Hey. You’re awake. And, um, there isn’t any easy way to say this, but Will is dead, Tara. I’m sorry.”  
She helped her to her feet and they walked hand in hand, avoiding the fire, which made the witch feel better.  
They stopped by Xander and Dawn.   
Xander was knelt by her.  
Dawn was hurt. Not bad, though. But she was injured. She had a bleeding left leg.  
“Xander, get Dawn out of here. We’ll meet you at the shop. I’m going to make sure Anya wasn’t in here when the fire started.”  
He did as he was told, carrying Dawn out.  
Twenty minutes later, they found her in the kitchen, back to the door, a knife by her, blood by her hands.  
“Tara, get me a dish towel.”  
She knelt by her.  
Tara came up and gave a clean one to her.  
“Is she going to be alright?”  
“I don’t know yet. I’m not sure if she’s alive or not. I need to check.”  
She gently rolled her onto her back and felt for a pulse. She then checked her breathing.  
“We have to get out of here. She’s barely alive.”  
“Will she die?”  
“If we don’t get a first-aid kit she will.”  
“Tara, I need you to get her to the shop. I’m going to see if Spike is in the basement.”  
Tara did so, putting her arms under hers.  
Cordy came downstairs and turned on the light, a blanket in hand. It was evening, but she wasn’t sure when the sun would set. And he was a vampire. He would turn to ash in the sunlight.  
“Spike?”  
There was fire downstairs, too.  
She held onto the railing at the bottom, coughing.  
He slowly came to and saw there was fire everywhere. He also saw Cordelia. He got to his feet and briskly walked to her side.  
“What’s wrong, pet?”  
“We have to get out of here. The shop.”  
“I meant you.”  
“Dizzy and weak.”  
He draped the blanket over himself and put an arm around her.  
She did likewise with her own arm.  
“Let’s go, luv.”  
They walked up the stairs at her pace, her head resting on his shoulder.  
She stumbled into the hallway by the front door and he caught her.  
“Easy, Princess.”  
She coughed some more.  
It was eight that evening when they half walked, half stumbled in.  
He once again caught her from falling.  
Tara came up and wrapped an arm around her.  
“You got her, luv?” he asked Tara.  
“Y-yeah.”  
He let go.  
She helped her sit in a chair.  
“Water,” Cordy managed through coughs.  
Anya was much better now and spoke.  
“Spike, you better go get Willow from the house. She’s dead, but we need to bury her.”  
Spike left.  
Xander gave her a bottle of water and Cor slowly drank it.  
“Thanks.”  
“You’re welcome,” he replied.  
The next day, they had Buffy and Willow’s funeral.


	28. Saved By Her Ex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Buffy S6.What if Xan had found Cordy in Sunnydale?

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase walked into Sunnydale. She was still poor. This time without a car or place to go. All she had now was her purse and a small bag of clothes and other necessities.  
It was dark, cold, quiet night as she walked down the streets of Sunnydale. She knew where she wanted to go. It was a matter of finding him. She would look for him at his basement. If she couldn’t find him there, she would go to the Bronze. She hoped her search would turn out successful. She wanted; needed; had to find him.  
Memories washed over her like a flood, as she kept on. Some were good and some were bad. First, there was her as the leader of the Cordettes and Queen C. Then, there was her and Xander’s two first kisses in one day. Next, there was her and Xander making out in broom closets. The very last, was her seeing Willow and Xander making out in the old factory behind the Magik Shoppe.  
She was so caught up in her memories and thoughts; she didn’t realize she had wandered over by the Bronze, a black away from it, until she felt pain. That’s when she came back to the present. She realized that she was on her back, a demon on top of her. It had scales all down its back and it was green with scaly, ugly skin. It growled at her.  
In her high school days, she would’ve given it a cold stare, kept her fear hidden, and struck out with words that would scare it, making it run away in fright. She wasn’t Queen C or a bitch anymore, but she did say the same thing she would always say to a demon.  
“Eww! Gross! Ugly much!” she exclaimed.  
She kicked it off her and then ran. She only got a foot, though. It grabbed her and through her into a section of Sunnydale that looked like a forest. It had a lot of trees. She landed just inches away from a tree. It came after her again. This time, she recognized what kind of demon is was. She just didn’t remember the name of it. All she knew was that is paralyzed its victims with its fingers or whatever while he or she was still alive. She felt pain, as it scratched her on the stomach and started to bite into one of her sides. She let out a scream.  
As it started stripping away her skin on her stomach and eating it, she closed her eyes and let herself go still. Then there came numbness, as the paralysis flooded through her body and her breathing slowed. She knew she was dying fast.  
As she went under, she could barely hear her name being called. The pain stopped. Then she heard nothing, as she was swallowed by the darkness and she couldn’t feel, see, or hear anymore.  
As soon as he had heard that scream, he had ran as fast as he could, recognizing who that scream had come from.  
It was a gruesome sight he saw, as he entered the trees. There was that demon they had been looking for to kill, stripping away Cordy’s stomach. It looked like it had even bitten her side. He could easily see she had lost a lot of blood and was unconscious, if not in worse condition.  
“Cordy!” he yelled out, scared for her health.  
The demon stopped and turned to him. It went after him, but the Zeppo avoided it and then cut its head off with an Axe, killing it.  
It turned into nothing but bones, as he ran and knelt by his ex. He took his jacket off and tied it around her stomach and side, hoping that it would either slow or stop the bleeding. He then picked her up and carried her, her head on his shoulder.  
Everyone looked at him, as the door opened and he walked in with the former Queen C of Sunnydale High. He closed the door behind him, as he walked in with her.  
“What’s she doing here?” Anya asked.  
“I don’t know, An,” Xander answered.  
“Was it the demon? It looks like it,” Buffy said.  
“It was, but I killed it with the Axe you gave me.”  
“Will she be okay?” Willow asked.  
“I don’t know, Wills. She lost a lot of blood,” he explained.  
“Who is she?” Dawn asked.  
“Cordelia,” Buffy answered her sister.  
“Let’s help her. Shall we?” Anya said, standing up from the couch and walked up the stairs.  
Xander followed her to Joyce’s former room, which was now the guest room.  
Once in the room, he layed her gently on the bed.  
He turned to the former Vengeance Demon.  
“What do we do?”  
“Stop the bleeding. Then clean and patch up her wounds.”  
Twenty minutes later, they finished up.  
Anya went downstairs to leave them alone.  
Xander sat on the bedside and held her hand. He took his free hand and with two fingers, searched for a pulse on the side of her neck. She was still alive. He took his hand away.  
“Cordy, if you can hear me, can you wake up? You’re still my Secret Eyes.”  
Nothing happened.  
“Please, Princess.”  
That last thing had her come to.  
As soon as she saw him, she smiled at him, slowly sat up, and then hugged him. He then hugged her back.  
“You’re still my girl I fell in love with back then.”  
“You saved my life. Thank you.”  
“Of course I did. I still care.”  
They walked downstairs, his arm around her, smiling.


	29. Selfless (revised)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post S7E5 “Selfless.” Starts right after Anya turned human again, but as the title says, it’s revised. Cordelia Chase is in town and she helps Anya when Anya gets hurt. In the meantime, Cordy gets hurt, but Xander and Anya work together to help her.

Xander followed Anya outside of the Fraternity house.  
“Anya, wait.”  
“Xander, please. Just go away.”  
“Whatever’s between us---it doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t be alone in this.”  
“Yes, I should. My whole life, I’ve just clung to whatever came along.”  
“Well, speaking as a clingee---I kinda didn’t mind.”  
“Thanks. For everything.”  
Xander nodded, realizes this was her rejecting his offer to help.  
“Xander----what if I’m really a nobody?”  
“Don’t be a dope.”  
“I’m a dope?”  
“Sometimes.”  
“That’s a start.”  
Xander walked away, leaving a teary-eyed Anya to deal alone.  
Xander was several feet away when there came pain in her stomach, as someone from behind stabbed her in the stomach.  
She looked down to see a knife.  
“You should’ve stayed a Vengeance Demon,” the Lister Demon said. “Now I can deal with you.”  
She gasped in pain.  
“Keffron,” she managed to say.  
Her head rested on his shoulder, as she started to sag to the ground.  
Suddenly, she saw Cordelia Chase in view with a loaded crossbow raised.  
“Okay, Lister Demon. You can beat me up, you can torture me, and you can kill me. But nobody goes near my friends or hurts them.”  
Xander heard a noise of a crossbow and what Cordy had said.  
He turned around to see the scene. That’s when he ran towards them.  
She cocked the crossbow.  
“Let her go filthy, slimy, no good, rotten moron.”  
When he arrived, she let an arrow fly and land, sticking out of his shoulder.  
The Lister Demon through Anya and growled in pain.  
“That hurts, huh?”  
She lowered her crossbow and handed her ex an Axe.  
“Decapitate him if you can. I’ll help Anya.”  
He nodded, taking the Axe from her.  
She ran towards her, knelt by her, and set her crossbow down.  
She then set down and opened her kit. She pulled the knife out.  
Anya gasped and shook. The former Queen C applied pressure with gauze to her stomach.  
Once her wound was taken care of, she gently pulled her into her arms.  
“It’s okay. You’re going to be alright. You’re going to live.”   
No sooner has she spoken, then the former Vengeance Demon started to shiver. The Drama Queen spoke soothingly.  
“Relax, Anya. It’s okay.”  
“Why’d you save me?” Anya asked, started to feel better.  
“I consider you both an ally and an innocent. No matter what you’ve done in the past. The past is the past and it doesn’t matter. You deserve to live. You don’t deserve to die. Plus, I had a vision. You feeling better?”  
“Yeah. I am.”  
“Good.”  
She helped Anya to her feet.  
“You rest by that tree. I’ll help Xander kill that demon.”  
Despite all his efforts, he still hadn’t been able to chop his head off. He got a few Axe marks, but that was about it.  
Just then, the demon pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and through it behind himself. It landed in the Seer’s shoulder from behind and through her collarbone on the right side.  
“Cor!” he yelled.  
Anya opened her eyes from resting, hearing Xander’s yelling.  
As soon as she saw the arrow in the Seer, she rushed over to help her.  
The Seer staggered back, pain surging through her shoulder and collarbone. Her vision blurred, just as Anya reached her and grabbed her right arm. She started to lose her balance and strength. Her head went back. It lolled, eyes closed. She started to fall and Anya used what strength she had to keep her up.  
“Cordelia. Cordelia,” she said, as she did her best to hold her up.  
Xander pushed the demon to the ground. It looked up at him before the Zeppo decapitated him. He dropped the Axe and ran as fast as he could towards them.  
The Zeppo came up behind his first ex and put her arm around his shoulders. He wrapped his free arm around her waist, her head supported by his elbow underneath.  
“You got her?” Anya asked.  
“Yeah. I’ve got her,” he answered.  
She let go.  
He picked her up and carried her, Anya following.  
“Where are we going to take her?” Anya asked.  
“Buffy’s.”  
She picked up the kit.  
Twenty minutes later, Anya opened the door for him. He quickly entered and layed her gently on the couch on her side. Anya shut the door and walked up to him.  
He looked at his second ex.  
“What do we do, An?”  
“The only thing we can do.”  
“Which is?”  
“Pull it out, apply pressure to her wounds, and then clean and patch them. I brought her kit.”  
He stood by watching her work, making sure to remember what she was doing for future reference. He didn’t know much about first-aid. Anya and Cordy did , though. After all, his Secret Eyes had saved An’s life. An was doing the same for Cor.  
Thirty minutes later, Anya sat in a recliner drinking a cup of hot chocolate, while Xander was knelt in front of the couch with his hands in Cordy’s.  
Ten minutes later, she finally and slowly came to. When she saw him, he stroked her hair and she smiled.  
“How do you feel?” He asked.  
“Like myself. Thanks, guys.”  
“You’re welcome,” he said.  
She slowly got to her feet and he helped her.  
“You’re welcome,” Anya said with a smiled.  
They smiled at each other.


	30. End of Days/Chosen (1st revised version)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "End of Days/Chosen." Cordy comes back to Sunnydale, instead of Angel. What will happen? Read to find out.

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Storm Sewers

Faith stands over the wooden box and smashes the padlock off with her boot. She kneels before it and swings the lid open to reveal several hundreds pounds of plastic explosive connected to a detonator and timing device. The timer counts down. Faith runs, diving into a murky sewer water, just as the bomb explodes with a tremendous fireball. The pressure wave tosses Faith around like a matchstick.

Pagean Temple/Shadow Valley Vineyard

As Buffy stares at the ancient weapon embedded in the rock, the trapdoor above slams open and Caleb stalks down the stairs.  
“So…you found it. Not impressed. ‘Cause the question now, girly-girl, is can you pry it from solid rock before I come over there and----“  
Buffy reaches and casually lifts the Axe. She holds it up and turns toward Caleb who stops in his tracks, for the first time uncertain and fearful.  
“Damn…” Caleb says.

End of Days/Pagean Temple-Present

Buffy wrestles with Caleb as he tries to get control of the scythe from her. She recovers and whacks him in the side of the head with one end of the weapon, then hits him in the gut with the other, then again with the blade----three shots fast.  
Caleb let’s go and Buffy leaps backward. He rushes her and unleashes a punch that shatters a stone column to dust on contact.  
“You’re not slipping out of this fight, girl. Can’t you see? You can’t stop me. I can just keep going back for more. It’s like being re-born.”  
Buffy lunges at Caleb with the scythe and this time he ducks under its blade, avoiding contact.  
Buffy presses the attack, swinging and thrusting. Caleb can’t be touched.  
He smiles and stands upright----a target.  
Buffy swings the Axe blade right at his neck and Caleb, without looking, shoots a hand up and catches the scythe in mid-swing, stopping it cold. With his other hand, Caleb punches Buffy so hard she flies into the far wall, sending up a cloud of dust. She drops the scythe on impact.  
Caleb holds the scythe up for all of a split second, as Buffy kicks it from his grip and catches it in the same motion. She spins, catching Caleb behind the knees with the scythe’s shaft and lifting him off his feet. He crashes to the dusty floor. Buffy spins the scythe, stake-end first, and thrusts it downward straight at Caleb’s throat. He catches it an inch above his face and twists hard, flipping Buffy over. Now it’s her turn to hit the ground.  
Caleb leaps to his feet and Buffy staggers to hers just in time to receive a devastating punch to the face. It sends her reeling backward. Caleb just keeps hitting her, a maniacal on his face.  
Buffy tries to defend herself but she’s running out of steam.  
She lies on her back on the floor, writhing in pain as Caleb circles her, not even out of breath.  
He raises his scythe for the killing blow.  
Suddenly, he drops it. He looks at his chest and pulls an arrow out, tossing it to the ground.  
“Now who in the hell was that?”  
He puts a foot to Buffy’s throat and turns to look.  
“Me,” Cordelia Chase says, a loaded crossbow aimed. “Now let her go.”  
“Those things won’t kill me.”  
“I know.”  
“Then why try?”  
“To save her life.”  
He lifts the Slayer with a fierce grip and throws her, making her land with a wall and pillars on top of her.  
“Buffy!” she yells, and then looks back at Caleb.  
He starts forward.  
She shoots, putting one through his throat and another through his gut. He doubles over in pain. She lays the crossbow on the ground and pulls out a sword. He looks up, as she raises her sword  
that Angel had given her. Then she slices him in half. She puts her sword and crossbow in her black bag, which is by the stairs.  
She runs towards where Buffy is buried. She starts digging, tossing rumble aside. She soon finds her and drags her into the middle of the Pagean Temple, gently laying her down. She then kneels at her side.  
“Buffy? Buffy,” she calls.  
Buffy soon starts to come to.  
“Buffy. Buffy, can you hear me?”  
“Cordelia?”  
Buffy slowly opens her eyes to see her.  
Cordy figures she’s okay now, so she helps her to her feet.  
A loud noise sounds and Faith knows something bad happened in the sewer tunnels.  
“Faith,” Buffy says.  
They rush to the sewers as quickly as they can, running side by side, Cordy’s bag over her shoulder, desperate to find the former Dark Slayer.

Sewer Tunnels

They run towards the mucky water, seeing her there.  
Once there, Cordy pulls her out and gently lays her down on the ground. She checks for a pulse on the side of her neck, as Buffy kneels beside them.  
“Faith?” Buffy calls.  
Cordy finds that she’s alive. She takes her fingers away.  
“Faith, can you hear me?” Cordy calls.  
Faith groans, coming to and then coughs. Cordy sits her up, as she coughs, to help her and make sure she’s okay.  
Once finished, Faith realizes who’s there with her.  
“C?” she questions.  
“Long story,” Cordy says. “Now let’s get to Buffy’s.”

Summers' Residence

Everyone looks at the front door, as it opens. Xander and Anya both walk slowly up to the former Queen C. Willow runs right up to her, hugging her, happy to see her. Xander is the second and last person to hug her. Anya just stands there, staring her down.  
“What brings Queen C back to Sunnydale?” Xander asks.  
“If you’re here to cause trouble, just leave,” Anya tells her.  
“I think she’s here to help,” Buffy announces. “She saved my life and helped Faith. We owe her one.”  
Anya laughs.  
“Cordelia? Her? Helping? You have got to be kidding me.”  
“I’ve changed,” the former Cordette leader tells her.  
“It’s true. She has,” Willow agrees.

 

The Battle

Two days later, the battle against the dead bone things that used to be vampires and The First begins.  
Anya and Andrew fight side by side, while Cordy fights on her own turf. Xander does likewise as his first ex. Buffy and Faith fight side by side. Spike and Willow fight on their own, too.  
Suddenly, Buffy falls to the ground, stabbed with something from behind, but there’s nothing in her. Blood shows on the shirt she’s wearing.  
The First appears as Buffy saying, “Ow. That hurt.”  
“Buffy!” Faith yells, fighting one of the creatures. Faith has seen her fall to the ground.  
Meanwhile, one of the creatures sneaks up behind Anya. It stabs her in the back and she falls to the grounds, as it pulls it out of her.  
“Anya!” Cordy yells, rushing forward, as she fights the creatures off left and right with her sword, trying to get to her.  
A few minutes later, she kneels by her, stops the bleeding, and patches it up.  
A few minutes later, she hears Buff yell something.  
Everyone around her starts running out, as Buff yells, “It’s collapsing! Everyone get out!”  
Buff takes one last long look at Spike, he smiles at her, he turns to dust, and then she leaves. Faith is right behind her, leaving a moment later.  
Xander looks around the best he can, just standing there, searching for his second ex.  
“Anya! Anya!” He calls out.  
Nothing. There’s silence. Then there’s a voice.  
“Xander, to your left! We’re over here!”  
That voice. He will always know that voice. He will cherish it with all of his being. It’s his Secret Eyes. Cordy. She’s the one that has called to him.  
He follows her voice, guessing where it has come from. Where his Queen and An are located at.  
Once he sees them, he rushes over and kneels by them.  
“What happened?” he asks.  
“She’ll be alright. Just get her out. I should be right behind you. If I’m not, come back and find me,” she replies.  
He rushes out the best he can, carrying the former Vengeance Demon in his arms.  
Once she’s on the bus and he sees Cordy isn’t around, he runs back inside.  
“Cordy! Cordy!” he calls loudly.  
He’s desperate to find her. After all, she’s his Queen and Secret Eyes. He can always look into her eyes and know all of her secrets. She will tell them all. She holds so many secrets in her eyes. But then again, it isn’t high school. This is the real world now. It could be different now with her. After all, she isn’t the same as the high school Cordy he grew to love.  
He runs as fast as he can, seeing her. He has only seen her, because he has heard her first. She’s screaming in pain, fingers to her temples, moving around as if hits her. He knows from Willow that she has visions. He figures that his is one of them. He hasn’t expected it like this, though. For her to be in so much pain, but still hang on.  
He carries her the best he can, as the vision continues.  
Faith looks around at everyone.  
“Where’s X?”  
Dawn points to the entrance of Sunnydale High.  
“There he is.”  
Willow hurries forward to help, knowing from how she’s acting she’s having a vision.  
A few minutes later, they’re all in the bus, Willow driving, as Sunnydale disappears. At the same time, Cor keeps on screaming as the vision continues, She keeps her fingers to her temples, screaming, back arching, as it lasts even longer.  
A mile outside Sunnydale, Willow stops the bus. She goes over to where Cor lays, the vision starting to ebb away. Will gives Xan a bottle of water and Advil.  
“Give these to her. And I guess I don’t have to tell you to be gentle. Nobody speak loud. It’ll hurt her more. She gets migraines after her visions,” she tells them.  
The bus drives off, heading for LA. Will figures that’s where Cordelia’s vision is located at.  
“What did you see?” Xan half whispers.  
She takes a couple Advil and drinks some water. She looks at him, slowly sitting up.  
“I…I saw…Angel.”  
She looks at Buffy when she says his name.  
She continues, still gazing at the Slayer.  
“He…he’s chained.”  
She puts a hand to her temple, trying to see things more clearly.  
“It’s a house. I see…Oh, God. Holtz.”  
Half an hour later, Cordelia Chase walks into the house, the others in the bus.  
She aims a crossbow at his chest, half a foot away.  
“Let him go,” she says.  
“Why should I let hi----“ he has to break off, as she shoots him in the leg with an arrow.  
While he’s in pain, she uses a rebar nearby to release him. She then helps him out.  
Buffy takes over, once she sees the May Queen helping him.  
Buffy helps him into the bus. They then drive to the Hyperion Hotel, Will driving.  
Angel soon gets better, Holtz goes back to his own time, and everybody lives as happily ever after as they can. After all, LA may not be the Hellmouth, but there are plenty of things out there.


	31. End of Days/Chosen (2nd revised version)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a one-shot. Cordy kills Caleb before he can kill Buffy and Xander. Read to find out what happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Potentials weren’t summoned to come help.

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase ran through the cemetery towards the Pagean Temple. She wasn’t going to let Caleb kill Buffy and Xander. They weren’t going to die if she could help it.  
Caleb was choking the Slayer to death, until Cordelia pulled him off by his color and kicked him in the stomach.  
“Stay the hell off her.”  
“And who the hell are you?”  
“Cordelia Chase. Xander’s ex. Now with the hell with you.”  
She cut him in half with the scythe. She then dropped it and ran towards the blond. She then knelt beside her.  
“Buffy?” she called.  
The Slayer lay on her back on the ground.  
She put a couple finger to her neck and then took them away.  
She felt for any injuries or wounds. All she saw was a scratch on her forehead and on each cheek.  
“Buffy can you hear me? It’s Cordelia.”  
The Slayer groaned and her head moved.  
She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at her.  
“Cordelia, what are you doing here?”  
“Doyle had a vision. Are you okay?”  
“I’ll heal.”  
“You can go. I killed Caleb for you. I’ll check on Xander. We’re not in a position to argue. This place is bursting into flames.”  
She helped the Slayer up.  
Buffy ran out, as the Drama Queen rushed over and knelt by Xander. She then gently slapped his cheek to wake him up.  
He groaned, coming to.  
When he saw her, he thought he was seeing things, but he knew he couldn’t be.  
“Cordy?”  
“Hey, Xan. Are you alright?”  
“I think so.”  
“Good. It’s time to run.”  
She helped him up and then they ran.  
Half an hour later, everyone sat on the couch.  
“So you’re back?” Anya had to ask the former Cordette leader.  
“No. I only came to save Buffy and Xander from Caleb killing them. I don’t belong in this group anymore.  
Before she left the house, they all hugged her. Willow, Buffy, Faith, Anya, Spike, and then Xander. They then watched as she left the house, closing the door behind herself.


	32. Destruction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy is dead. Bringing her back didn’t work. The PTB bring Cordy back to life. Darla is good. Tara and Anya never died. Spike has a soul. Xander and Anya are still exes. Faith is the only Slayer left. Xander never lost his eye. Destruction from an earthquake starts up. Will it stop, or will our heroes have to stop it? Set somewhere after “End of Days”, but Sunnydale still stands.

It was dark night. Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara, and Dawn were patrolling in the graveyard while Faith and Spike were in Spike’s crypt in his bed making out. Harmony and Darla were alone in Sunnydale in separate areas.  
Xander stopped, seeing someone lying by a headstone. The others did likewise. Without a word, he ran towards her, leaving the others in the dust sort of speak.  
He knelt beside her.  
She lay on her back, apparently out cold. He looked at her. He couldn’t believe it. He was amazed. She was back. She was alive.  
Three years later, and she was brought back to life by the Powers That Be. It was his wish come true.  
“Cordy, can you hear me? It’s me, Cor.”  
The others caught up with him and stood behind him.  
“Cordelia?” Willow questioned.  
“Yeah. It’s her,” Anya replied, seeming not surprised.  
“W-what’s she d-doing here?” Tara asked, having heard about her.  
“So this is Cordelia,” Dawn commented.  
Xander Harris gently pulled his Secret Eyes into his arms.  
That’s when she came to.  
“Sunnydale? I thought I was supposed to wake up in L.A.”  
“Nice to see you too, Cor,” he said with a cocky grin. The one he used back when they had all still been in high school.  
“What are you doing alive?” Anya asked.  
“The Powers brought me back.”  
“Are you okay?” Xander asked.  
“Yes.”  
She sat up.  
She started to get up and he helped her.  
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Dawn announced.  
“I know. I was watching over everyone.”  
“E-everyone?” Tara asked.  
“Yes, Tara. Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Spike, Harmony, Lilah, Faith, and you guys. But that didn’t stop anyone from dying. I was a PTB. The Powers aren’t allowed to interfere.”  
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble and crack non-stop. As everything fell around them and the earth cracked, they lost their balance.  
“Will and Tara, go find Darla! She has a soul now! Anya and Xander go find Harmony! Dawn’s with me! Dawn and I will go find Faith and Spike! We’ll all meet back at Xander’s basement! Now go!” Cor called over to them over the noise.  
Everyone obeyed her, crawling over to each other and then doing their best to walk.  
Cordy knelt in front of the former Key after crawling over to her.  
She rested gentle hands on either side of her head. It was like she cared; Cared about her as much as Buffy. As if she had a sister or mother’s love for Dawn.  
“Are you okay?”  
“Ya. I’m just afraid of what will happen.”  
“Dawn, we’ll get through we. We have to find the crypt, though.  
I may not care much about Spike, but I do care about Faith. And it’s what your sister would’ve wanted. And like you and the others, I miss her. I wish she was still here. I never showed it, but after everything, I cared about her. I think I know now why I woke up here. I’m supposed to do what I do best. What I did when I worked for Angel in L.A. Protect my friends and mainly, well, innocents in general. Now let’s go save a couple misfits.”  
Twenty minutes later, they found a collapsed crypt. With all efforts, they were able to unburnt a clothed Slayer and vampire.  
“You check on Spike and I’ll check on Faith,” the brunette told the previous Slayer’s sister.  
She did as she was told, kneeling beside the unconscious vampire. The brunette did the same with the Slayer.  
“Faith, it’s Cordelia. Can you hear me?” she called.  
A few minutes later, she got an answer.  
“C?” she questioned softly, eyes closed.  
“It’s me.”  
“Am I dead?”  
“No. I was brought back to life to have a second chance to make everything right for everyone.”  
She slowly opened her eyes.  
The former Cordette leader helped her sit up.  
“Are you healed?”  
“Five by five. What about S?”  
She looked over at her assistant, whom was helping him to his feet.  
She looked down at her.  
“He’s alright.”  
She helped her to her feet.  
They got the couple to the basement before going to track their friends down.  
Meanwhile, Darla was unconscious in a hole in the ground in the park. She had scratches and scrapes all over her.  
The good witches were knelt beside her.  
“Darla, can you hear me?” Willow called.  
Darla groaned, starting to come to.  
“Darla?” Willow called.  
“I hear you loud and clear,” Darla replied, opening her eyes to look at her. She then got to her feet.  
“Good. Cordelia wanted us to find you. We’re all supposed to meet at Xander’s basement. They’re our friends. I’m Willow and this is Tara.”  
“I remember seeing you before. Nice to meet you. Now let’s go.” So they left to go meet at the basement, Willow and Tara at the lead.  
Anya and Xander soon found Harmony whom was just fine. Therefore, they went on their way towards his parent’s basement.  
Meanwhile, Cordy and Dawnie were searching for survivors.  
That’s when it happened. Part of a street collapsed beneath them.  
Both landed on their backs.  
Dawn crawled over to Cordy.  
“You’re hurt,” she said to the former Queen C, seeing blood heavily flowing out of her lower stomach, a piece of wood in it.  
“Dawn, I need Anya to come. She’s the only one that knows what to do to help me. Call her. Tell her what happened,” she said softly, as she started to grow weak.  
Dawnie took her cell phone out and called.  
“Hello?” the Vengeance Demon answered.  
What luck.  
“Anya, we need help. Cordelia’s hurt.”  
“Hurt? Where?”  
She told her and then they hung up.  
It wasn’t long before Anyanka appeared after teleporting to them, using her tracking skills at the same time She then teleported them to the basement.  
A few minutes later, Cordy was herself again. The quake stopped, too. So everybody lived happily ever after.


	33. Welcome Home, My Secret Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set somewhere in the future after the battle against The First Evil and its minions. Cordy comes to town, only to have to save Xander from a vampire. What will happen between them? Read to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cordy never died in the Angel show.

It was a dark night, as Xander Lavelle Harris staggered drunkenly out of Willy's bar. It was all he could do lately. Drink the pain away and Slay. He had no friends or family left.  
Just then, he was jumped by a vampire. He tried to fight back, but he was too drunk to succeed.  
Just as he lowered his head to the Zeppo's neck, vamped out and ready to bite, his head went back when someone grabbed his hair.  
"Good Bulldogs don't bite."  
She pulled on his hair and the vamp was thrown to the ground a few inches away. She pulled out a stake and staked him. She then put it away in her sleeve and knelt down in front of her ex-boyfriend.  
"Xander?"  
He didn't look at her. He just got up.  
"Leave me alone," he slurred.  
He tried to walk away but fell, and she caught him before he could hit the ground.  
"You're drunk, Xander. Just let me get you home."  
He sighed.  
"Fine."  
"Well that's a start."  
She helped him walk and into her car. She then got in and drove him home. She knew from Willow that before Anya had died, they had had their own place. Any had died six months ago in the battle against the First Evil and its followers. The same applied to Buffy, The Potentials, Faith, Giles, Robin, Jonathan, and Andrew. There had been too much loss. But to lose Anya...That had struck her dweeb's nerve. They had broken up but yet still loved each other. Just like her and Xander. They still loved each other.  
She helped him to the bed and then she slept on the big popazaun chair.  
The next day, Xander Harris came out of the bedroom. He wondered why he still had his day clothes on from last night. All he knew was that he had a hangover. He remembered that he had gone to Willy's bar to get drunk. He had been stupid. He had left after dark. Then he remembered vaguely being rescued from a vampire by a brunette. It seemed like a dream to him. But when he saw her asleep in the chair, he realized it hadn't been after all.  
He sighed. That chair used to be where Anya would sit. Just sit there and look at him happily, as she gave him comments. Some were mean and some were polite. She would even give him a stare down that he never did with her.  
He walked over to his high school sweetheart that he so dearly loved. He looked down at her. She looked so precious when she slept. That had been the only thing he hadn't known until now. He had never seen her sleep back when.  
He smiled down at her.  
He went to the kitchen to silently as possible to make something for the both of them. Something that he knew all too well that she loved. Eggs with smiling blueberry pancakes.  
Once he was done and it was set on the table with silverware and glasses, he walked back to the living room. He sat on a corner of the chair and looked at his peaceful ex. He gently bent down to place a soft kiss on her forehead. Then he brushed some hair out of her face.  
"Cordy, time to get up."  
She slowly woke up and looked at him. She then sat up.  
"Is that what I think I smell?" she questioned with a smile.  
"Good morning my lady," he said with a smile.  
"Dork," she said, as she did so.  
He extended a hand to her and she took it. He then led her towards a kitchen to sit where her breakfast was. She sat down and he pushed her chair in for her.  
"What would you like?"  
"Milk."  
He carried their glasses and poured both of them a glass of milk.  
Once seated, they started talking.  
"You shouldn't have, Xander."  
"But I did."  
They then ate as they spoke.  
"How's LA?" he asked.  
“Just like always. I came here, though. I heard about what happened, so I decided that I needed to help."  
"With what? You were never one to fight head on."  
"That was back then. I've changed. When I got used to the visions, I became a fighter. At first, Angel wouldn't let me participate, thinking I would get hurt. But after Wesley and Gunn joined, he taught me some moves with a sword. I've been helping ever since."  
"So you're a sword master," he joked.  
She chuckled.  
"Still my dweeb."  
She smiled at him.  
Afterward, he put the dishes in the dishwasher and closed it.  
After they both were ready for the day, Cordy wearing Anya's clothes since she didn't have any extra pair, they got to know each other. She found out that he was exactly the same. He had learned all of what went on in her life in LA, and that she had actually given up her visions. Spike was back and he had the visions himself. It relieved both of them. After all, she wasn't going to die from them. Instead, she would die a natural death. It was what they all wanted. Go out with a big bang. Which translated to dying fighting against the creatures of Darkness. It was even how Anya, Faith, Buffy, and the Potentials had gone out. So they all lived happily ever after as you could on the Hellmouth, with Cor moving in, them getting back together, and him moving on without Anya and the others. He even sobered up for the rest of his life.


	34. Christmas Past, Present, and Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Around Christmas Eve, Xander gets a few visitors kind of like what Scrooge got in that old movie on Christmas Eve. Read to find out what happens.

Christmas present

It was Christmas Eve. Xander Lavelle Harris was asleep in his bed, when the ghost of his fiancée woke him up by calling to him.  
He got up and asked her, "An, what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"  
She answered him, telling him that they were going to see the present happenings of LA. And so they did. He found that they were in LA overlooking the graveyard. There was Angel fighting and staking evil. Then they were in the Hyperion, seeing Harmony all gloomy.  
"Everyone is in pain. You're not the only one that lost her when she died. Harmony is beside herself and Angel doesn't have his Seer anymore for help. You have to show them that you know how they're feeling, Xander," she told him.  
He just nodded.

Christmas Past

Xander couldn't help but smile from ear to ear, and feel a sense of overwhelming love, as his ghost of Christmas past appeared. He wanted so much to hug her and tell her things he would never tell others, but she was a ghost.  
She smiled back at him.  
"Let's get started," Cordelia Chase said, and then they were in Sunnydale in the good old days of sophomore year. The best year of their lives. The year they both fell in love with each other.  
"I know you remember everything. I do, too. We were so happy. Xan, I don't want you so upset, that you never find another girl that will love you," she finished.

 

Christmas Future

His high school sweetheart was replaced by her and Willows' teacher Jenny Calendar.  
"Ms. Calendar," he greeted.  
"Xander,” she greeted back, and then the future began. “They already told you of the present and past. If you move forward instead of staying in the past, then you'll make it.”  
As she faded after that message, a total different one was spoken by her.  
"Tell Rupert to move on and not to dwell on the past." And with that, he found himself back at home, so he went right back to bed.


	35. It Was The Best of Times, It Was The Worst of Times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all remember Cordy and Xander. Right? They were in so much love back in Sunnydale. Here’s my own story. It’s pretty much the same. Just without the supernatural storyline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a BTVS fic without the storyline of vampires and such. Hope you enjoy.

Remember when you were young? Remember when you fell in love and dated for the very first time? Maybe your first love was your forever love. Maybe you were in your youth in high school, when you dated for the first time. Maybe you’re still in your youth and still in love. Maybe you’re still dating. No matter how old or young you are, just keep in mind how young love goes. Usually, it’s all hormones when you’re in high school. This is what Cordelia Chase and Xander Lavelle Harris and their friends thought. Mentally, they agreed with their friends. They never told their friends, though.  
Back in 1993 in Sunnydale High, Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase were from two different worlds. Cordelia was rich, popular, a self-centered bitch, a Drama Queen, Queen C, and in the “in” crowd. She was even the leader of the cheer leading squad and the rich and popular group everyone called the Cordettes. She had formed the Cordettes and, because she was the leader, the student body called them The Cordettes.  
Xander Harris was on the swim team for a season and then quit. That was the only and last sport he ever did. He was a geek as Cordelia put it. He always wore kind of baggy jeans. He was poor like most of the Sunnydale High students. So were his best friends. Buffy Anne Summers and Willow Rosenburg.  
In Sophomore year, her and Xander fell madly in love. They kept it a secret until the middle of sophomore year. This is their story. It’s all about teenager love, courage, strength, compromise, devotion, and strong will that they all have. All teens have them. They’re the best qualities teens have. It all starts in Sunnydale, California in Sunnydale High.

Sunnydale High-1997, late sophomore year

It was a beautiful day as Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Cordelia walked together down the halls of Sunnydale High before school started. A lot had happened between Cordy and Xander. She had left the Cordettes for Xander. Everyone officially knew that she and Xander were in love. They were inseparable. Almost. That’s how much they were in love. Sophomore year was towards the end and they were still deeply, truly, and miraculously still together. They were what gave people the true meaning of “everlasting love” and “never ending love.”

Sunnydale High-1998, Junior Year

Cordy and Xander were dancing on the dance floor at the Bronze, not caring who saw them together. They were with Buffy, Angel, Willow, and Oz. It was the only place teens could go to hang out, eat, or dance without getting into trouble. Oz was Willow’s boyfriend. Angel was Buffy’s boyfriend.

Sunnydale, CA-2000, 1 year after graduation

It was a beautiful day. Xander Lavelle Harris was all dressed up in uniform. They were fiancées now. They had been for six months. But now she didn’t; wouldn’t know if she would ever see him again. So therefore, she didn’t know if they would ever get married. After all, he was going off to fight in the war.  
As the ship sailed off somewhere to the camp, she waved to him. He waved back. They both hoped to see each other again. The only contact she would have would be the letters she wrote to him and that he wrote to her. It would be hard, but they were both strong, brave, and courageous. They both always had been that way. Xander was strong, brave, and sometimes courageous. Cordy was strong-willed, brave, and courageous.

Sunnydale, CA-2005, 5 years later

Hope, joy, gladness, cheerfulness, satisfaction, bliss, glee, mirth, delightfulness, and elation illuminated from her. Her sexy, brave fiancée was coming home unharmed. She knew her strong-will would help her get through the hard times.  
When she saw him and he saw her, they rushed into each other's arms smiling. They then kissed and went home. Yep. Her man was home at last.  
Five years later, they got happily married at 30 years old. It was good luck, too. They weren’t superstitious or anything, but they had heard somewhere that a rainy day on your wedding day was good luck. And so, they had good luck. After all, that’s what happened. It rained on their wedding day. So everybody lived happily ever after.


	36. Her Story (revised)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new version of Buffy show.

Introduction

You know love, lust, and how rich girls are. Right? Well, that’s how Cordelia Chase once was. Rich, snotty, rude, and a self-centered bitch to everyone in Sunnydale High. But there was a certain guy that saw right through her. She couldn’t hide her true feelings from him. It was almost like he could see inside her. They tried to ignore their feelings for each other. Their true feelings. But it didn’t work out. So, in the end, they had to give in to their love, lust, compassion, and care for one another.  
A few years later, in senior year, they broke up. She saw him and Willow, whom was his best friend, making out. So that broke their relationship forever more.  
After graduation, she left town without a farewell to anyone.  
When her actress career in LA didn’t work out, she decided to join Angel with his business.  
After Doyle died, she started receiving the painful visions Doyle used to have. And so her adventures go on. These are her stories in contrast. Her life starting in high school.

Sunnydale High; Sunnydale, California; August 1992

It was a beautiful , sunshiny day. It had spread like an atomic bomb that there was a new girl in town. Buffy Anne Summers.  
Xander Lavelle Harris was skateboarding on the sidewalk, when he saw her making her way to the front doors of the school. He couldn’t take his eyes off her until he ran into the railing that separated the left stairs from the right. He fell right on his back on the stairs. He wasn’t hurt, though. He got right back up.  
“Nice going,” Harmony Kendall said, as she walked passed with some books for class. Like usual, he didn’t say anything. It wasn’t in him to stand up for himself against girls. Especially the Cordettes.  
His best friend, Willow Rosenburg, came up to him.  
“You’re in love with her.”  
“No I’m not.”  
“Yes you are.”  
“Even if I was, I couldn’t ask her out. I’m like you. You have the shyness with guys. I have the same thing with girls. But I guess I could try. Tell me if I’m wrong here.”  
His red-headed female friend answered honestly, “You’re right. Just try not to shy away. You can be confident if you put your mind to it. Trust me on this.”  
“I will always trust you, Wills.”  
“And that there is a very good thing.”  
They walked away with his arm around her, heading up the stairs to go inside.  
Cordelia Chase and her clique that everyone called the Cordettes, walked down the hall. As they walked passed Buffy, Harmony pretended to accidentally bump into her, making Buffy drop her books. They kept walking passed, snickering, as Buffy knelt to the floor on hands and knees. Xander came and knelt by her, helping her with her stuff.  
“Let me help you,” he said, as he helped her stack her books so she could carry them. “I’m Xander, by the way. Xander Harris. What’s your name?”  
“Buffy. Buffy Summers.”  
“Maybe I could show you around town. We could go to the Bronze. It’s the only place to have fun in this town.”  
“Sure. I’ll just tell my mom that I’m going out tonight. I’m sure she won’t mind.”  
They smiled at each other.  
It was a dark night, as she walked into the Bronze in a blue dress and black heels.  
She found their table and sat by Xander and Willow. “Buffy, hey. You made it,” he said to her. “This is Willow. We’ve been friends since childhood.”  
“Hi,” Willow greeted, smiling.  
“Hey,” the blond girl greeted back.  
“So, I guess we should party now,” Xander announced.  
“And that means…?” Buffy asked.  
“It’s Xander language for dancing,” Willow clarified for her.  
“Oh. Well, dancing I can do.”  
Xander started dancing and the girls watched.  
“Is he always like this?”  
“Yeah,” Willow answered her.  
Xander suddenly stepped on Cordelia’s red high heels on accident, dancing. She looked at him and he did likewise, both stopping.  
“Get your inexpensive shoes off of my expensive eighty dollar shoes, geek!”  
“Sorry, your majesty.”  
“You better be!”  
Xander walked back to them.  
“You know how much of a pain she is?”  
Willow nodded in agreement.  
Buffy looked at them and then asked, “Who is she?”  
“That’s Cordelia. She’s the leader of her clique that we all call the Cordettes,” Wills told her.

Sunnydale High; Sunnydale, California; October 1993

It was a beautiful day, as Cordelia and Xander made out in a broom closet. They were so much in love. They had been together since the middle of sophomore year. Right now, it was towards the end of sophomore year. Everyone knew about her and Xander by now. They had decided not to keep it a secret any longer. For Cordelia, she didn’t give a crap about what their friends thought. He was her love. She loved him; even if it was just teenage hormones. Xander on the other hand, actually did care.

 

Sunnydale High library; Sunnydale, California; 1999

Cordy and Oz walked into the library to a very disturbing scene. Willow and Xander were making out. Nobody else was there.  
She covered her mouth in shock with a hand. Oz just stood there.  
“Oh God,” she said, getting the two kissers her and Oz’s attention.  
“Cordy, “Xander said, trying to think of something to say. Find the right words to stop what he knew would happen. He knew her way too well. The same applied for her. She knew him too well, as well.  
“I have to get out of here,” she said, running out the door.  
“Oz,” Willow said.  
“I have to go,” he told her, walking out the door.  
Xander walked out the door, trying to find her. She had disappeared down the halls, though. He wanted; needed to explain to her that he hadn’t meant for this to happen. She had started it and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. So, with regret, he had kissed her back.

Sunnydale, California; Sunnydale High; Graduation Day 1999

It was a beautiful day, as Xander watched his Secret Eyes; his Queen; his first love, walk away without a single farewell to anyone.  
He knew he had hurt her so much. That’s why he didn’t even try to go to her. He still loved her, though. He would always love her. That he knew. It came from his heart.


	37. Carnage of Destruction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate world where Buffy doesn’t win against Kralik, because of her still being weak from what Giles and the Watcher’s Council did to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did this really quick, because of a request. I’m not into Buffy anymore, so that’s why it’s not very detailed. I’m also not very good with chapter fics, unless it’s something I’m seriously into like The Vampire Diaries or The Originals; things like that. And I never was very good at details in Buffy stories; especially, when I’ve grown out of it, which is why I don’t really remember much of it. I’m more of an Angel, Vampire Diaries, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Pretty Little Liars, Walker, The Walking Dead, and such fan. I just thought I’d put that out there.

Ch.1: Turned

It was a dark night, as Buffy Anne Summers, knowing she had to go through with the test, silently walked through the dark, creepy-like house in search of Kralik, a vampire that was in an insane asylum before he was turned by a vampire, which meant that he was now pretty much an insane vampire, but in a different sense than Drusilla whom Spike was madly in love with.  
After a few minutes, she found them and they had a fight and she through some Holy water on him, but it didn’t work on him. It didn’t burn him or hurt him like it did with normal vampires. Instead, he stood there and laughed at her, since it hadn’t worked and all. She then ran off to a different section of the house, in which was where she found that her mother had been captured by Kralik and tied up. So, she stopped running from him and tried to undo the ropes on her mother, which was all the distraction Kralik needed.   
Buffy turned around to see him and they fought some more, but she lost and he turned her.   
Just as Kralik had told Joyce what would happen, it happened. She was turned and Joyce was the first person she saw. 

 

A few nights later, Buffy had Kralik burned on a cross and was happy about it. And then she was found by Spike. 

Ch.2: Torture

One night, Buffy and Spike now being together, decided that they would turn and torture her mother, so that’s what they did for quite a few days and nights in Spike’s hideout under his crypt in the Sunnydale, California graveyard that, when she had still been alive, Buffy and her friends and sometimes her Watcher would patrol in. Then, later on, being bored with torturing her mother, they moved on and turned the Scoobies, which wasn’t hard for them to do, since Buffy knew them better than anyone. 

Ch.3: Pain and Perfect Happiness

After these events, Angel was so emotionally hurt and Cordelia Chase was there for him, which caused him to sleep with her, which gave him “perfect happiness.” He lost his soul and became Angelus again. Then he made Cordy’s life a living hell, which made her go insane pretty much and even made her his new slave. 

Ch.4: Pay Back and Shock

When Buffy was finally able to locate Principal Snyder one night, she did so to ‘pay him back’ for what he had done. Then, a few years later, she showed up at Angel Investigations just to shock everyone, which was recently after Spike had died and had started working for Angel Investigations and had gotten a soul, but not a cursed soul. 

Ch.5: Alternate Verse

When Willow got jealous of Buffy and Spike, she found herself in Dark magic and sent Buffy and Spike to an alternate universe, which was different from what had actually happened in the real world. In this world, Buffy won against Kalik and wasn’t turned and neither were her friends. And Angel didn’t lose his soul when he had ‘perfect happiness’ with Cordy.


	38. Bangel vs. Spuffy Love and Tragedy Romance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S1-7 of BTVS. Here’s the epic love story of bangel and spuffy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really quickly wrote this, since it was requested by a friend on gmail and goodreads.

There once was a vampire turned by a vampire named Darla and had sired a vampiress named Drusilla, also known as Darla. He was the most brutal and savage vampire when he was soulless, next to Darla of course, with Darla and Dru and later, William the Bloody, also known as Spike later on, at his side. His name was Angelus and he was known as “Angelus; the evil one; the one with the angelic face; a face of an angel.” But then, after he bit a gypsy girl, he was cursed with a soul. After that, he couldn’t be happy without losing his soul and Darla, sensing his soul when he came home, turned her head in shame and fear of him. So, he left and was alone ever since, until, years later, a helpful, good demon named Whistler who looked human, found him in an alley and told him that if he wanted to find his destiny, he had to come with him. So, he did. By now, Angelus had changed his name to Angel and had started helping others any way he could. Then, Angel found himself at Whistler’s side in Sunnydale, California in the cemetery, watching a blond girl he had never seen before, Slaying vampires. Whistler told him that her name was Buffy Summers and she was a vampire Slayer, and to do everything he could to protect her with his life. So, Angel stayed in the shadows, watching over her until, one night, he had to show his face to her, in order to save her life from The Three. They were armored vampires; a lot like assassins.  
In the beginning, after Buffy found out what he was, she tried to kill him one night, but she loved him so much that she couldn’t. Then Darla came and tried to kill her, so Angel snuck up behind her and stabbed her through the heart with an arrow, protecting the girl he had fallen in love with. And from then on, Buffy realized how good of a vampire he was. She realized that he wasn’t the enemy. Instead, it had been Darla. Though, she assumed Darla had been the enemy from her Watcher, Giles, when he had told her about Darla and Angelus’ history. It became an epic love story, because it didn’t matter what went on or what happened, they would do anything for each other. They went through hell and back in order to save each other, no matter what.   
In the end, Angel broke up with Buffy right before graduation day, which broke her to pieces, but she knew she had to be strong. He didn’t leave town just yet, though. He stayed in town to help Buffy and her friends fight on graduation, against some evil vampires and a black worm or snake-like huge demon, which the mayor had turned into in the middle of his speech at graduation. And right after the battle, Angel gave her one last look and Buffy looked at him, before he walked away to leave Sunnydale behind, he thought, forever.   
A few years later, after Buffy was brought back to life due to her friends doing a spell to bring her back, because they needed her, since a Slayer hadn’t been called to Sunnydale yet, she and Spike fell in love. At first, they didn’t understand why they had fallen in love, since Spike had attempted to kill her many times in the past. He had even been in love with Dru for centuries until she left him forever, and had dated Harmony, a recently turned vampire that had been rich and popular at Sunnydale High and had made fun of Buffy a lot of times. But he and Buffy fell in love anyway. That, too, became an epic love story, but then, when the battle between The First Evil and its minions and him and the Scoobies came, he survived until the very end when the place started to crumble and sun hit him. By then, Spike had somehow gotten a soul, but not a cursed soul. He had gotten it, by showing how good he could be and how much he was madly in love with the Slayer. Buffy wanted to stay with him, but he told her that she had to go and to just leave him there. So, Buffy left, and as everyone got on the bus and drove out of town, Sunnydale collapsing before their eyes, Spike turned to dust. And that ends the love and tragedy love triangle story of the bangel and spuffy pairing, which will always be remembered and hopefully, cherished throughout the end.


	39. City Of

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Angel S1E1 "City of." Cordy find herself in a vampire situation. Can Angel and Doyle save her? Can Doyle get Angel to open up to people again? Read to find out.

It was a dark night as Angel, a vampire with a cursed soul, sat at a bar with a shot glass in front of him. He had just finished his drink.  
A man, which he sensed as a vampire, left the bar silently with a companion and two girls.  
When the two vampires were vamped out and two female humans were scared and backing slowly away, Angel came out from the darkness of the night.  
"Have you seen my car?"  
"Go away," one growled at him.  
Angel punched the one that had spoken to him. Then it attacked him and Angel whipped out a stake, staking him, turning him to dust. The two remaining ran at him at both sides. When that happened, he pulled out a couple stakes and staked them.  
Angel stood with his back to them, vamped out and in the dark shadows.  
"Thank you," one girl said.  
"You saved us," the other one said.  
"Go home," he said.  
When they didn't, he turned around, showing them his true face.  
"Just go home," he said. Then the girls ran off in fear of him.  
Later that night, Angel was in his apartment when he noticed a man in his doorway.  
"Who are you?" Angel questioned.  
"Doyle. I’m here to help you."  
"I don't need any help."  
"Sure you do. Let me tell you a story."  
"I'm not sleepy."  
"There once was a vampire. He was brutal and savage. One night he bit a gypsy girl and was cursed with a soul. Then one night he fell madly in love with a girl who just so happened to be the Vampire Slayer."  
"Okay. Now I’m sleepy."  
As they walked the crowded streets of L.A., Doyle spoke to him.  
"You have to let people in. Get close to them, Angel."  
"What if I don't want to?"  
"You have to get to know people."  
The next night, Doyle and Angel were at a party. Angel was there because he was with a girl named Tanya.  
Angel stood a distance away, looking at the most beautiful girl next to Buffy. Cordelia Chase. She was talking to some girls, but when she saw him, she excused herself and walked up to stand in front of him.  
"Angel? What are you doing here?"  
"I'm here with a friend."  
"Are you still...you know...grr?"  
She used her hand to gesture fangs.  
"Yeah. There really isn't a cure for that."  
"Right. Well, nice talking to you."  
He watched, as she went back to her group.  
That next night, Doyle had a vision of Cordelia Chase in danger.  
Meanwhile, Cordelia sat in front of a desk. Some guy named  
Mr. Winters said he could help her get fame and fortune. Now she sat with him in his office.  
When she started looking around, she realized what he was.  
She stood up and walked backwards away from him until she stood by his bookshelf.  
"Wait a minute! You're a vampire!"  
"What? No I’m not. I don't know what you're talking about."  
"I'm from Sunnydale. You don't fool me. You don't have any mirrors and the windows are covered. I know a vampire when...I’m...alone with one."  
He stood up.  
"Good. Then we can skip the introductions."  
He vamped out.  
Cordy ran out of his office, as he chased after her. She ran down the hallway and started towards the stairs, but his minion vampires were coming up them at both staircases. She stood on the inside balcony and looked around for a plan. She had to be fast she couldn't fight them off. She wasn't a Slayer or vampire.  
Suddenly, Angel was beside her, fighting them off. They shot him and beat him up a few times.  
After he killed a few, he picked her up, carrying her, and jumped off the balcony, landing on his feet. Then the two of them ran.  
Later, as Doyle was taking care of Angel's wounds, she spoke.  
"You don't think he'll come after me again, do you? Not after you scared him off?"  
He gave her a look and she looked back at him.  
That day, Angel walked into a Wolfram and Heart meeting room, interrupting a meeting. He went to stand by Mr. Winters.  
Some of the employees watched in silence.  
"Angel, I don't want any trouble now."  
He gave Mr. Winters a look.  
"Look, we're both civilized men. I pay my taxes, I keep my name out of the paper, and in return, I can do anything I want," he continued.  
"Really? Can you fly?" Angel asked.  
He put a foot on Mr. Winters' chair and pushed off. Then he watched as he went out the window and turned to flames and then dust.  
Everyone in the office watched silently, as Angel left the room and then the Wolfram and Heart building, to go back home where Doyle and Cordelia would be awaiting his return.


	40. New Apartment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S1. Cordy gets a new apartment, but she’s not alone. There’s a ghost. Will they be able to put the ghost to rest? Will the ghost win? Read to find out.

It was a beautiful day. Doyle was listening to Cordelia, as she ranted on him about a commercial she tried out for.  
“I hate trash bags. They rip and tear. And end up costing us more. I’m trash bag material.”  
“Yeah. They don’t know what they’re missing,” he said, not knowing what to say.  
“Some lady showed up in a cat costume. She looked like cat lady taking out the trash. She got the job. I should’ve gotten it.”  
“Yeah. They don’t know what they’re missing,” he said, not knowing what to say.  
Just then, the phone rang and Angel showed up, standing in the doorway, arms crossed. Cordelia looked at the phone.  
“You going to get that?” Doyle asked.  
“Yeah. She is,” Angel said.  
“No. It’s just Delia asking how things are going. How my apartment is and stuff. I’m not ready for that just yet.”  
The phone went to voice mail and Delia left a message.  
“Hi, Cordelia. It’s Delia I was just calling to see how things were going.”  
It was a beautiful night, as Cordy made her way to her apartment. It was a real crappy one. At that same time, Doyle was asking how she was.  
“Her life all went down the drain but she’s doing alright.”  
Cordy opened the door after unlocking it. In the process of getting the key out, she broke a nail. She shook her hand, as it hurt.  
“Ow! Damn it!” she cursed.  
She entered the apartment and shut the door. She went to the kitchen and turned the faucet on, ready to get a glass of water. It spilled on her shirt, so she turned it off.  
She sat on the couch and turned the tv on. There were roaches all over it.  
She turned it off.  
“Ew! Gross! Roaches!” She grabbed the phone and called someone.  
“Yes. This is Cordelia Chase from apartment 4B. I thought you were going to get a exterminator in here, today. Yes, well if you had, do you think there’d be-,” she said.  
She broke off, hanging up the phone, as she stood up and stepped on a roach. She grabbed her address book, now sitting on the couch, and called up Doyle.  
Doyle walked into his apartment with a box.  
He put it down.  
The phone rang.  
“Hello, Doyle,” a Demon of Focus greeted, coming in.  
Doyle turned to see him.  
“You owe me money,” the demon said.  
“What happened to all the small things in life that are priceless. Right. You’re a, a Demon of Focus. I have your money over here,” he said.  
The demon put a hand on the drawer.  
“You’re not stupid enough to have a gun in there, are you?”  
“No. Of course not.”  
He opened the drawer and then pulled it out, hitting the demon with it. Then he ran.  
The demon chased after him.  
Since she didn’t get Doyle, she resorted to going to Angel with three bags. One being a luggage bag. She knocked at the door and he opened it. She through two bags into his arms and walked in, ranting about her apartment to him.  
“I can’t believe it. It’s just swarming with them. Roaches. With their little antennas and big, beady eyes.” She shivered at the image. “Dead ones, lives ones. All over. I had to come here. I couldn’t reach Doyle. Not that you’re the last resort or anything. Oh. And you’re gonna wanna get that bag out in the hallway. I wonder what they’re doing in the bathtub. Ew! Gross!”  
The next day, Doyle walked into Angel’s apartment to see Cordy there. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that he and the May Queen had made love.  
“Oh no. Angel, you didn’t. You knew I was going for her. But no. Big, broody vampire had to sweep in. Can’t you give guys like me a chance?”  
“We didn’t. I slept on the couch. She was in the bed.”  
“Oh.”  
Cordelia walked in and put a towel on one of the kitchen chairs.  
“Why is there a wet towel on my chair?” he asked.  
“Oops,” she said, smiling innocently.  
He walked off.  
She got on her hands and knees and started pulling a little bit of the floor up with a knife.  
“What are you doing?” Doyle asked.  
“Seeing if there’s carpet underneath,” she answered.  
She put the knife away on the table.  
Angel walked in.  
“You got peanut butter on the bed. “  
“No I didn’t.”  
He kept looking at her.  
“Fine. I’ll go look.”  
She came back.  
“Angel, it wasn’t me. At some point of time, you got peanut butter on the bed. And I don’t even want to know how it got there.”  
That afternoon, Angel came down the stairs of the Hyperion.  
“Doyle, there’s a big guy here to see you.”  
Doyle went running down the escape stairs.  
Angel was there at the foot of them.  
“Don’t scare people like that,” Doyle said.  
“What’s going on, Doyle?”  
“It’s a demon thing.”  
“What kind?”  
“I owe money. Money that I don’t have.”  
“Look. I’ll take care of your problem, if you take care of mine.”  
“I don’t know, Angel. Vampire business isn’t really my expertise.”  
Later that afternoon, Cordy and Doyle went in search of apartments.  
After the last one, she turned to him.  
“You say you know a guy?”  
They entered an apartment that was beautiful. It brightened her up. She was so happy in that place.  
“It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed. “What’s wrong with it?”  
“Nothing. The last resident just broke the lease,” the saleswoman said.  
“I used to have this stuff.”  
“The furniture comes with. It’s your lucky day.”  
“I used to have those, too.”  
“She’ll take it,” Doyle told the woman.  
“Great. I’ll get the paperwork ready.”  
Cordy moved in that night, but all wasn’t well. She was awoken by her bed floating.  
“I’m from Sunnydale! You don’t scare me! Not one bet!” she yelled at it.  
When morning came, the ghost let the bed fall to the floor.  
Cordelia went into her bathroom, using a q-tip to clean her ears.  
When she finished, she looked in the mirror.  
“It’s a bright, sunny, new day. There’s nothing bad here.”  
She came into the living room and opened the blinds. When she did, she got a cold wind from the ghost, blowing the blinds, breaking the chair leg when the chair was thrown, and blowing chopped up paper shreds.  
“Ooh! Wind! Scary! What are you going to do!? Chap me to  
death!? Come on! Is that the best you’ve got!?”  
Everything ceased when there came a knock on the door. She opened it to reveal Angel and Doyle.  
“Can we come in?” Doyle asked.  
“No. It’s not ready yet.”  
He walked in.  
“It’s fine.”  
He started closing the blinds.  
“Don’t touch them!” she said.  
“I’m going to close them so our boss doesn’t blow up in flames.  
If that’s okay with you.”  
“Oh. Okay.”  
When they had been closed, Angel walked in.  
“Hey, there’s a rule. What happened to the rule?” she said.  
“You said I was totally invited over to the next place you got.”  
“What? But I didn’t even have a place then.”  
Doyle saw the broken chair.  
“The place looks great. I don’t know what you had against that chair, though.”  
Doyle looked at the filled up mantle. There were a lot of trophies and her graduation diploma on it.  
“Nice collection you have there.”  
“Yeah. All my life spread out there before me. It was my life.”  
“Your diploma is a little burnt, though.”  
“Yeah. It was a rough ceremony.”  
Just then, a trophy flew at him, but her ducked from it.  
He looked at her.  
“That trophy just lunged at me!”  
“I think the mantle is uneven.”  
“It lunged at me!”  
“You’re right. It’s a very bad trophy.”  
“What’s going on, Cordy?” Angel asked.  
Just then, a word was written on the wall in what looked like red paint. They all turned to read it.  
“Cordy, let’s get out of here,” Angel told her.  
“I can’t.”  
“Now.”  
She looked at him.  
“Cordy, it says ‘Die’.”  
“Maybe it’s not done yet. Maybe it says diet. A little judgmental, sure, but-----.”  
Angel interrupted her.  
“We can try and put it to rest.”  
“Can we?”  
As Angel pulled her out by her arms, she yelled, “Listen up, Casper! You haven’t won! I won’t leave! I won’t! I’d rather die than give this place up!”  
When the door shut, the ghost appeared.  
“Alright, dear. If that’s what you want,” she said.  
Cor turned to the guys, once in the hall.  
“I can’t lose this place. I can’t. I need this place. It means punishment over. It feels like I’m being punished. But with this apartment, I can be me again.”  
“For what?” Angel asked.  
“The way I was. The things I did just because I could get away with it.”  
“We can put the ghost to rest.”  
That night, the ghost called Cor on the business phone. She made herself sound like Angel. Therefore, the former May Queen thought it was him. It told her that they found out how to put it to rest, and to meet at the apartment.  
She walked in.  
“Angel?”  
It appeared.   
It told her stuff. Like her wanting to take her son away from her.  
“My friends will come for me.”  
“Friends? What friends? You don’t have any friends. Why should anyone like you have friends?”  
Without warning it wrapped a piece of wire around her throat and she went limp, hanging from the ceiling.  
Meanwhile, Doyle was walking into work with a box in hand. At that moment, the phone rang. He set the box down and answered it.  
“Angel Investigations. We help the hopeless.”  
“Doyle, it’s me. Put Cordy on.”  
“She’s not here.”  
He looked at the answering machine. There was a blinking red light.  
“Wait. There’s a message.”  
He pushed play and they both listened to it.  
“That’s not me,” Angel said.  
Angel sped through the streets towards the apartment, Doyle in the passenger’s seat. Doyle looked in the back at the box that was in the backseat.  
“Bile. I should’ve gotten more bile.”  
Once parked, they raced upstairs to her apartment. Angel kicked the door open. He looked around for her and soon saw her in the kitchen, hanging there.  
They both ran over to her.  
Angel got the wire off and she gasped, conscious again.  
A few minutes later, they had the circle ready. Angel stood reading out of a Latin spell book, wind blowing all around in the living room, Cordy sitting on the floor in front of her recliner.  
The ghost kept on talking to her. It had connected to her. It was almost like it knew her personality.  
“We need Cordy in the circle! Cordy, get in the circle!” Angel yelled over the wind.  
When she didn’t budge, he gave the book to Doyle. “The “g” sounds like “l”.  
He went to kneel in front of her.  
“Cordy, you have to get in the circle. Come on.”  
“I can’t,” she said, shivering and chattering from the wind, arms crossed, trying to keep her jacket closed to keep some of the cold out.  
“Yes you can.”  
“They don’t care about you. They want you to fail,” the ghost told her.  
“She’s connected to you. Right? You can use that,” he said.  
“I c-can’t,” she said, trying not to sob.  
“You are Cordelia Chase. Are you going to just sit there like a weakling and let her do this to you?”  
She just looked at him.  
“Damn it, Cordy! You are the worst pain the ass I have ever met, Cordelia Chase! Now get up!”  
“I can’t.”  
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, forcing her to walk with him briskly.  
“We have to go! Now!” Doyle shouted over the noise of the wind.  
They opened the door.  
There in their way were some humans and a Demon of Focus.  
“Nobody’s going anywhere,” the demon announced, a crossbow in hand, aimed at Angel, knowing he was a vampire.  
“No more people!” the ghost shouted, enraged.  
The humans looked at her.  
“Ignore her. She’s just a ghost,” the demon told them.  
A few minutes later, there was chaos in the living room, the apartment door now closed. Cordy’s friends were fighting against the humans and demon.  
“Knives!” Angel shouted, seeing knives zipping towards them through the air.  
Everyone ducked and they landing in the wall. They continued to fight. As they continued to fight, Cor was blown into the bedroom.  
She saw the ghost and tried to open the door, but it was locked.  
She sunk down in front of the bed and looked up at her.  
“What do you want from me?” Cor asked, sounding like she was sobbing, but no tears came.  
“You know what happens next. Your friends are dirty. They ruined my nice home. Make yourself a noose.”  
Cor just stared at her.  
“You filthy, dirty little girl. Make yourself a noose. Now, bitch.”  
Cor gave her a cold stare.  
“I’m a bitch?”  
She stood up.  
The ghost tried again.  
“You’re going to make yourself a nust and put it around---.”  
The former Queen C interrupted her.  
“Back off, pollywag.”  
The ghost went quiet and stared at her.  
“I’m not a little cry Buffy. I’m the worst girl in Sunnydale history. I’m Cordelia Chase. I take crap from no one. Now you’re going to take your wrinkly, old ghost bags and you’re going to get the hell out of my house!” She yelled out the last part, making the ghost disappear through the wall.  
She came out.  
“You did it,” Doyle said.  
“Yeah. Well, she pissed me off.”  
Suddenly, Cor’s eyes became white until she took a lamp and used it to smash the wall. Then she came back to being herself.  
A spirit came out slowly.  
“I knew I didn’t like that wall,” she commented.  
“Dennis, I presume. And he’s probably not too happy with his mom,” Doyle commented.  
“Dennis, please. I’m sorry. It was for your own good. She was going to make your life miserable,” the ghost pleaded with him, which was to no avail. Dennis went right through her, destroying her, as she screamed in pain and then disappeared.

 

It was a dark night, as Cor talked to Delia on the phone.  
“Oh. The apartment is great. How’s your life going? That’s wonderful. I’m happy for you.”  
Dennis moved her Coca Cola can a few inches. She covered the phone with her hand.  
“Now, Dennis. Put that back.”  
He did as he was told.  
She tried to speak again, but had to cover it once again, when he turned the TV on.  
“Dennis, when I’m on the phone, that’s quiet time.”  
He turned it off.  
“Thank you,” she said.  
She went back to chatting away.


	41. Feelings After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short story of Doyle/Cordy falling for each other.

It was a dark night as Cordelia Chase strode down the Los Angeles streets. She was on her way home. Her friends Angel and  
Doyle were doing their own thing unless, of course, Doyle had a vision. Then they would be killing some pesky supernatural creature or saving someone or both. If they were doing their own thing, Doyle would be at home or drinking Scotch at the bar. Angel would be alone in his dungeon.  
She stopped, as he went to stand beside her.  
They walked beside each other.  
"Now what do I owe of this visit with your horrible taste in fashion sense?" she asked Doyle.  
"I can't jus' come walk you home?" he asked her back.  
She smiled.  
"What a White Knight," she commented.  
In the end, he walked her home and she said her good-nights, as well did he, before closing the door afore him. They knew now that they had feelings for each other. The kind that gave you butterflies in your stomach. They had even kissed which neither had wanted to depart from but had to so she could get to bed and call it a night until next time. It did scare her, though. It meant moving on from the one guy she would always love; Xander Lavelle Harris.


	42. Another Lover That Never Worked Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cordy's feelings and thoughts on Doyle before and after S1E "Hero."

Catch Up

Let me catch everyone up. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the title says it all. Buffy is a Slayer. One night, she is saved from a vampire with a soul named Angel. He has a soul because he is cursed with it by Gypsies centuries ago when he was Angelus, the most feared of all vampires. He can't have happiness or he will lose his soul and become Angelus once again. Buffy and Angel fall madly in love, but they have to be careful because of his cursed soul. They went through everything until Graduation when he breaks up with her and leaves town.  
Now let's move on to Cordelia Chase. She was rich, popular, stuck up, self-centered, and a bitch for years, until she fell in love with the geek Xander Harris, in which she used to look down on and make fun of. They had a great relationship. They would fight like cats and dogs, exchange insults they didn't really mean, break up for a time, and then kiss to make up and get back together again. At least, until "Lover's Walk." A vampire named Spike had captured Xander along with his best friend Willow, after Spike's soul mate Dru left him, knowing that Willow was a witch and Xander saw him capture her. When Cordy and Willows' boyfriend Oz found them, they were kissing. She never got back together with him and left on Graduation day.  
Later, when the Angel show comes along, we realize that Cor and Angel, when they both left, went to L.A. Cordy decides that she can't run from her intuition to fight evil, and joins Angel to help out and do that. They call it Angel Investigations. Doyle was already around before Cor came along. So that's the recap.

The Walk Home

It was a beautiful night. Cordelia and Doyle were locking up for the night. Doyle walked home in the night with the former Cordette of Sunnydale High. He was walking her home. Not that she couldn't defend herself or anything. She knew how. It was just a guy's instinct to protect a girl. Didn't matter who she was or how strong she was.  
They stopped in front of her apartment in the apartment building.  
The blue hazel eyed brunette looked up at him with a smile.  
"Good night, Doyle.”  
"Good 'ight, princess," the half demon, half human Irish guy answered back, and then he watched her shut the door behind her before he left to go home himself.

Fallen Hero, Fallen Lover, Fallen Friend

A few nights later, in Cor's apartment, Doyle and her confessed their love for each other, and then there came the first kiss they ever shared.  
A couple nights later though, he died saving everyone from a certain death from a lighted globe thing that would kill anyone with human flesh. Right before he went over in a rush to pull the cord before it exploded, he and Cordelia shared the last kiss they would ever share. And as they kissed, an unknown blue light shown between their lips.   
Another one of my guys that never stayed. Another lover that never worked out, she thought the next night, as she entered her apartment.


	43. My Ex To The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in Angel S1 but also Buffy S7 after the last battle. Doyle is still alive, though and so is Cordy. Xander comes to her, only to have to be her knight in shining armor Can he save her? Can Cordy be of comfort for him? Read to find out.

It was a dark night, as Cordelia Chase headed home after a long day of working at Angel Investigations with Angel and Doyle.  
She was a few blocks away from the apartment building she lived in by now, when she was dragged into an alley with a cold hand over her mouth. Then she was roughly thrown and she hit the wall before she landed on her back on a pile of wood. She groaned in pain, before the vampire came over. She knew she had to fight, but she was delirious and felt blood close to her abdomen. She knew a piece of wood had stabbed her there and that she might die. As he pulled her to her feet, she saw Xander. It was like a flash or vision of him. Then everything went black.  
The creature of darkness caught her from hitting the ground, before he vamped out and sunk his teeth into the side of her neck, her head on his shoulder, back against him.  
Xander was walking, heading for Cordy’s, when he saw something from the corner of his eye. He walked into the alley and saw the scene. A male vampire was feeding hungrily from his ex.  
“Hey!” he called to it.  
It let go and she fell to the ground on her back. It then turned around to face him.  
Xander walked towards him and after some struggle, staked the vampire with a stake through the heart, turning it to nothing but ashes and dust. He then rushed towards and knelt beside his ex.  
She was out cold.  
“Cor,” he said.  
He pulled the piece of wood out and tossed it to the ground. He then took care of her wound and gently picked her up in his arms, before he headed for her place.  
When she woke up, she was on her bed in her apartment with Xander seated at her bedside with a worried face.  
“Hey,” he greeted. “You’re awake.”  
“Hey,” she greeted back, and then sat up in bed. “Thanks, but what are you doing here?”  
“I was on my way to speak to you.”  
“What about?” she had to ask him.  
“I don’t think Deadboy told you the aftermath of the battle in Sunnydale with The First,” he said.  
“No. He didn’t say anything,” she replied. “What’s wrong?”  
“Sunnydale is gone. Our home we’ve always known is gone, Cor. Buffy, Dawn Buffy’s sister, Willow, and the only Potential left Kennedy are heading for New York. I don’t where Faith is going, but I thought I’d stick around LA for a while.”  
“What about Anya? Did she make it?” she asked.  
He looked away from her and was silent. He didn’t need words, because his silence said it all for her.  
“Oh, Xander. I’m sorry.”  
“I’ll be okay, Cor. I just need some time and a place to stay.”  
“You can stay with me and Dennis.”  
“Who’s Dennis?”  
“A very friendly ghost as long as he doesn’t get jealous. We have to catch up.”  
“Yeah. We should.”  
“What happened?” she asked, seeing that one eye was covered with an eye patch and the other wasn’t covered.  
“Caleb, a priest that was influence by The First Evil happened. Buffy and I got into a fight with him and he stabbed me in the eye.”  
“Do you want to talk about the battle? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but sometimes it’s better if you talk about it.”  
“For once in a long time, Buffy and Faith worked together in the battle and Andrew was there. He’s with Buffy and the others now, but Anya died protecting Andrew from those creatures. Spike died, too. Though, I could care less about him. It was chaos over there. The ones that survived were lucky to. In the end, Sunnydale collapsed before our eyes so we had to get out of there. Before the battle, we lost Tara because of Andrew’s friend Warren shot her. I don’t think he knew that he did, but he did almost kill Buffy. Willow almost took over the world because of Tara’s death. Anya helped us get her back on track, but it was really me that got Willow back on track. When Willow called to tell you guys that Buffy’s alive, Buffy was alive because we all brought her back. Sunnydale was being taken over by vampires and demons, because nobody brought another Slayer to Sunnydale. We needed her back. So we did the stupidest thing we could ever do. Before Anya died, An and I were exes. We were going to get married, but I realized at the last moment that I wasn’t ready. I apologized to her though, before I left her at the altar. After that, we broke up and tried to figure out where we stood with one another.”  
“I’m sorry, Xander. You’ve been through so much. Not even I can top that as much as I’ve been through here in LA. The only reason I came to Angel Investigations was for protection. Angel saved me from a vampire and his minions with help from Doyle. I know what you feel about demons, but Doyle is a half demon but he’s also human.”  
“And how did that happen?”  
“Doyle’s father was a demon and his mother was a human.”  
“Oh,” he said.  
“You can take the bed and I’ll take the couch for tonight, unless you don’t mind sleeping here with me,” she replied.  
“We can take the bed together,” he replied.  
So that night, they slept together, which was very familiar with them. After all, they had been exes ever since senior year of high school.  
Later on, Xander found his own apartment to live at and got a job at one of the coffee shops in town there, not far from his and Cordy’s apartment. So everybody lived as happily as they could in LA.


	44. Sadness Can Kill You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different version of when Kate tried to kill herself by taking a bunch of pills and downing alcohol in her apartment. Instead of Angel coming to the rescue, Cordy does when she has a vision. Read to find out what happens.

It was a beautiful night. Cordy had just arrived in front of her apartment door when it hit her. A vision.  
A few minutes later, it ended.  
"Oh God. Kate."  
It had shown her taking some pills and mixing them with a big bottle of wine. Then she was on the floor unconscious. Then it ended.  
She didn't even pause to take any migraine pills. She ran as fast as she could down the stairs, out the apartment building, and then out to her car.  
Ten minutes later, she arrived at Kate's apartment door.  
"Kate?"  
There was silence.  
She tried the door. Unlocked. She walked in and closed it behind herself.  
As soon as she saw her, she rushed over and knelt by her.  
"Kate?"  
There were a few pills scattered on the floor and an entire bottle of wine empty on the floor. She put a couple fingers to her neck. Alive.  
She went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of cold water. She came back with it, knelt beside her, opened the bottle, put her hand under her so that when she lifted her, her upper body was off the floor and then she poured the water from the bottle on her face.  
"Come on, Kate. Come on. Wake up, Kate. Kate, come on," she said.  
The bottle was half gone when she came to. She set the bottle down and held her in her arms, as the detective coughed.  
When she was done coughing, she sat up and looked at Cordelia Chase.  
"How did you know?"  
"I had a vision. I saw what you did and what would happen. Why would you do that?"  
"You wouldn't understand."  
"Actually, I would. Ever since sophomore year of high school, I've gone through hell and back. Not literally Hell, but Sunnydale is built upon a Hellmouth. And when I wasn't in danger from the Hellmouth-y things with Xander, I was being a normal teenager with a normal life as a popular and rich cheerleader and Cordette. And these visions? They're not all beautiful flying colors. They're a pain in the ass. The point is, Kate, there's no way out. And you can thank me for saving your life, but don't blame Angel for your father's death. When Angel says something, he's honest and never holds back from details in certain things."  
They both got to their feet.  
"Thanks, Cordelia."  
"You're welcome. And I won't tell Angel about your suicide mission."  
"Thanks."  
"And again you're welcome."  
Kate watched as the brunette Seer left.


	45. Helper (Faith and Cordy's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S1 between E18 Five By Five and E20 War Zone, when Faith first arrives and Angel helps Faith become the good Slayer again. Cordy finds a wounded Faith. Will she be okay? Read to find out what happens.

Faith

It's a dark night in LA, California as I walk the streets on my way to the Hyperion hotel. Angel lives and works there and is the boss of Angel Investigations. C works with him and has visions. Wes and Gunn work with them, too. Wes was a Watcher before he was fired and Gunn is a loner. He works with them though, because they're friends and it's what friends do. They help one another through anything if all possible. Me? I don't have friends. B and I were close friends until I turned bad ass. Now we're not friends. She and her friends hate me for what I did when I was bad. I tortured Buffy and wanted to hurt Willow. I didn't succeed though because they rescued her from me. X had faith that I could become who I used to be again, though. I admire him for that and he was right. I came through with the help of Angel. Nobody else wanted to go anywhere near me. How did I become the bad Faith? I accidentally killed a man. I told B I was okay, but I wasn't. I went into shock and that's when I went bad. But now I'm back to being who I used to be.  
I stop, sensing danger around, and then hear noises from an alley. So I walk into an alley I hear the noises from, only to see some vampires. They're cornering a girl whom I don't know. She's a stranger to me, but I know she's human. That means she's an innocent, so she's someone that needs protected.  
“Hey!” I say, and the three vampires turn around, which gives the girl a chance to flee out of the alley in fear.  
They growl at me and then lunge at me. And then the fight is on between us.

Cordy

I'm walking down a sidewalk, as I head home, when I see a girl running as if for her life, from an alley. I don't see anything after her, but I go to check it out anyway. And as I do so, I don't hear anything from the alley and it's late, so nobody is around.  
When I arrive, I see Faith seated on the ground, back against a brick wall at the entrance to the alley. She's in bad condition I know, just by sight.  
“Faith?” I call.  
I briskly walk towards her.  
I kneel down in front of her and search for a pulse on the side of her neck. I check her breathing, before I look for wounds and injuries.  
When I find that she has wounds on her stomach and abdomen that look like stab wounds, I'm worried. She has a cut on her forehead and the middle of her chest, a minor wound on her left leg, and blood on either side of her head.

Faith

After the attack where I staked the vampires and blacked out, I come to to see that I'm still in the alley. C is in front of me.  
“Hey,” she greets.  
“C?” I question softly.  
“It's me. We have to get our of here.”  
Everything blurs together and dims. I don't know why. I don't feel any pain.  
“Faith, stay awake. Stay with me,” she instructs me.

Cordy

By the time I get Faith on the couch at the Hyperion, she blacks out.  
A few minutes later, I have her taken care of and I know she'll be okay. So everybody lives happily ever after with Faith healing.


	46. Billy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in "Billy." What happens when Billy uses his power of touch on Angel and Cordy won't leave? Read to find out.

Angel walked up to Billy at the airport. They half circled each other.  
Meanwhile, Cordelia Chased walked into Lilah's apartment.  
"Where's Angel?"  
"He's on his way to see Billy. To kill him, actually."  
"Where is Billy?"  
"The airport."  
"You're coming with me."  
"Why should I?"  
Cordelia raised her crossbow to her throat.  
"You're going to help me take down Billy."  
Lilah Morgan eyed her.  
"What's in it for me?"  
"You don't get anything in return, Lilah. And considering your situation, you don't have a choice."  
"Fine. "  
"Good. Now let's go."  
She lowered her crossbow and then they left, Cordelia trailing behind her.  
It wasn't long before they arrived at the airport. She came from behind a plane to stand in front of it, crossbow at the ready. She tried to get an aim at Billy, but the fight between them wasn't letting her. She couldn't risk shooting at the moment without shooting Angel or both of them.  
Suddenly, Billy got the upper hand. Billy grabbed Angel and put an arm around his throat in a choke hold. Billy then put his hand on his cheek. Red shone on his cheek. Angel tried to fight the anger pulsing through him from the touch.  
"I've never done this to a vampire before. This should be interesting."  
Angel looked at Cordelia, as he tried to fight the anger.  
"Cordy, get out of here."  
"No. I'm not leaving you. You can fight this, Angel."  
"Get out of here, Cordy! Now!" he yelled, as he started to lose control.  
Billy looked at him.  
"That's it. Feel it. Feel the anger. Let it fill you. Doesn't it feel great? All that anger building up. Surging through you."  
Angel grabbed Cordy roughly from behind with the anger showing. They ended up on the pavement, him on top.  
"Angel, this isn't you."  
He growled.  
"I'm sorry," she said before jabbing an arrow in his back. He gasped in pain and she kicked him away and to the ground.  
She turned to Billy.  
"You know what I hate the most? People using Angel for their own plans."  
Lilah showed up a distance away and shot him dead. She then walked away, gun away.  
After Angel was safely home, Cordy walked into her apartment feeling soar. She felt knew Angel hadn't met it. He had just been under the influence of Billy's power. He had had no control over his actions. Luckily, he hadn't hurt her severely like he could have.  
The next day, she walked into the Hyperion to see Angel waiting by her desk.  
"Hey," he greeted once she reached him.  
"Angel, what happened...it wasn't your fault."  
"I'm sorry, Cordy. I'm so sorry."  
"It's alright. You were under Billy's control."  
"I hurt you."  
"But not bad, Angel. It wasn't you."  
They hugged.


	47. I'm Not Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Instead of Angel staying with Darla when she's human and dying, Cordy does. Read to find out what happens.

It was a dark night, as Darla, newly resurrected, walked along the Las Angeles streets. She was dying. She knew it all too well. It was a feeling that she had had way back in her own time in her own village. Back when her village had been spreading with the disease Syphilis. She had been one of the unlucky ones until The Master turned her. He had seen something in her. Maybe loyalty. She didn't know. She never bothered to ask. But now, resurrected as a human, she would surely die from it. But before she did, she had to go see Angel. He would always be her Angel. Whether he still loved her or not. Rejected her or not. She would always love angel. She would love Angel to the ends of the earth until the day she died for the very last time.  
As she tried to do her best to get as close to the Hyperion as she could, she lost her balance and strength and fell to the ground on the side walk. Nobody was out at this hour, so nobody was around to help her. All she could do was lay there on her back and let herself die.  
She closed her eyes to let death come. To let it claim her forever.  
Cordelia Chase was on her way home from the Hyperion, when she saw a figure on her back on the ground, eyes closed.  
"Darla?"  
She went and knelt down beside her. When she saw her, she knew what was happening. She was human and dying from Syphilis.  
"Darla, can you hear me?"  
"Cordelia," she whispered.  
"Yeah. It's me."  
She looked weakly up at the brunette.  
"I'm going to take care of you."  
And with that, the former cheerleader put an arm around the blond, helping her to her feet, and then they walked slowly to Cordy's apartment.  
Darla lay in Cordy's bed, feeling weak and wanting nothing but to go to sleep and let this all end. Be over with.  
Months passed, Cordy not leaving her side except to eat something or help with a case. She slept in a chair nearby. And that's where she sat now.  
"You don't have to do this," she whispered, knowing she was just moments away from dying.  
"Yes I do. I'm not leaving you. Never. I'm with you until the end. And that's final. I told you in the beginning."  
Darla closed her eyes.  
"You're a true hero. A true friend. Thanks."


	48. I'm A Dad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S2E “Darla” when Darla came to Angel 6 months pregnant with Connor, and in the next episode or two after that.

It was a dark night in Los Angeles, California. Everyone was downstairs in the Hyperion hotel where they died in the Hyperion hotel where they did Angel Investigations, when a pregnant blond walked in.  
Everyone turned to look at her, as she stood by the front doors and rubbed her stomach in a circular motion, as she said, “Hello, daddy.”  
She gave Angel a smile, as she looked at him.  
“Darla,” he said.  
Cordelia immediately took charge.  
“Fred, go get Darla something to drink.”  
“Cordy,” Angel warned, as Fred left to obey her friend.  
Cordelia looked at him.  
“What, Angel?”  
“It's Darla, Cordy.”  
“So? Don't you think she's been through enough? I'm going to help her, Angel. I of all people know what it feels like. You can stand there and do nothing for all I care, but she's pregnant because of you. So suck it up.”  
She went to Darla and helped her sit down in a wooden chair.  
Fred came back and gave Darla a white, plastic cup of water.  
“Is water okay, or would you like some blood, instead?” Fred asked the vampiress.  
“It's fine, Fred,” Wes said.  
Gunn and Wes left the room with Fred.  
“Thanks,” Darla said after taking a sip of water.  
“You're welcome,” Cordy replied.  
Later that night, Cordy was talking to Darla in a room. Darla was in the bed, Cordy in the middle of the room.  
Suddenly, a vision hit her. At that same moment, Darla got an overwhelming thirst for blood. So she bit her, as Cordy's vision continued. She tried to scream in pain from both the vision and the bite, but Darla put a hand over her mouth.  
A few minutes later, Angel came into the room and through Darla off her. Darla then jumped out of the window, as Angel picked Cordy up in his arms.  
“You'll be okay. You'll be okay,” he assured Cordy.  
When Cordy's wound was taken care of, she told Angel what she saw in her vision, as she layed there in bed.  
“Angel?” she said, as he walked towards the open door.  
He looked at her.  
“Be careful,” she added to him.  
She watched, as he left the room.  
Darla was in a casino, searching for food. She saw a little boy about five or six years old whom was lost and looking for his mother.  
She bent down in front of him.  
“Looking for your mommy?” she asked him.  
“Have you seen her?” he asked her.  
“Let's see if we can find her,” she said.  
She lured him into a dark area of the casino.  
“I don't think she's back here,” he told her.  
A moment later, Angel arrived.  
“Run,” he told the boy.  
The boy ran off, as Darla and Angel fought.  
Angel pinned her up against the side of a game machine.  
“The pain; make it stop. Go ahead. Kill me. Put me out of my misery,” she sobbed.  
“Darla, listen; listen to me. The hunger; what you've been feeling; the baby is human. That's why you've been craving so much blood.”  
When Angel had Darla in bed upstairs and fed, he came downstairs and warned everyone to stay away from her.  
He looked at Cordy.  
“That means you, too.”  
“Don't worry; if I forget, I have a reminder,” she replied, pointing to her patched up wound with a finger.  
Everyone watched him go.  
A few nights later, in the middle of an alley in pouring rain, everyone stood around Darla, as she layed on her back in pain.  
Angel knelt by her.  
“I'm gonna die in an alley. You died in an alley, remember?” she said to him.  
“I remember.”  
“Promise me that you won't let anyone touch our son. Take care of him,” she said.  
“I promise.”  
With vampire reflexes, Darla grabbed Cordy's stake and staked herself, leaving behind their son.  
Angel gently picked him up and got to his feet. Then everyone went back to the hotel where they all worked and Angel lived.


	49. Sire In Need (Angel's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set when Wolfram and Heart made Darla human, but also set when Angel fell or jumped out of a Wolfram and Heart window and onto the cement with glass around him. Will Angel care about Darla? Will he help her? Read to find out what happens.

My name is Angel and I am a vampire with a gypsy cursed soul. I was sired by Darla when I was fifteen in London, England. Back then, I was a soulless monster in love with Darla and vice versa.   
After I killed my younger sister and my father, Darla and I tortured and killed people in small towns and villages.  
In England, Darla sired William the Bloody now known as Spike.  
In Ireland, I sired Drusilla. I killed everyone she loved, which drove her insane. So, she was insane when I sired her.  
Soon, bother William and I fell in love with her and fought over here for a long time.  
Later, Spike and I tortured a Vampire Slayer and killed her in China. He then later killed a Slayer in Japan.  
In England, we met James whom was sired by Elizabeth. James joined us and then we were five.  
Later in England, we were attacked by Holtz, a Vampire Hunter, and his friends. Darla and Drusilla got away, while I took an arrow in the lower back. I got on a horse to flee, but James through me off and I landed on the ground. He then fled on a horse and I was captured and tortured by Holtz. Darla and William rescued me close to dawn.  
In Scotland, Dru and Darla were seduced by The Immortal. It peeved William and I off and we vowed to kill him, but we never found him.  
In Ireland, some gypsies cursed me with a soul for killing a girl that was the most loved of all the gypsies.  
When Darla looked at me in fear, I went to live in the dark allies. I knew I had to find my place in the world. I then changed my name from Angelus to Angel. And that’s where a demon named Whistler found me. He told me to follow him if I wanted to find my place in the world. So, I did. He brought me to Sunnydale, California and assigned me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He told me to protect her.  
For a while, I stayed in the shadows and watched her every night. And then Buffy and I met and fell in love. I lost my soul twice because of happiness. I got it back when Willow, a friend of Buffy’s, now a good witch, did a spell to give me my soul back. And then I figured we didn’t belong together. So, though it hurt, I broke up with her right before her graduation day. And after her graduation day, I looked at her a distance away from her, before I left town.  
When I left, I went to live in LA, home of Angeles. I then became friends with a half demon half human named Doyle and saved Cordy from a vampire and his minions. She joined us and named our business Angel Investigations, made our business cards, and made our motto “We help the helpless.”  
After Doyle died saving the world Wesley, Gunn, and Fred came one by one and Cordy began getting Doyle’s visions when Wes came along.  
I knew Cordy from Sunnydale when she was dating Xander, one of Buffy’s friends. But after Willow and Xander cheated, she broke up with him before graduation day. I knew Wes from Sunnydale when he went there to be Buffy and Faith’s Watcher after the Council fired Giles, but they both rejected him. So Wes was fired. Giles was fired for having “a father’s love” for Buffy.  
Even though we’re broken up, I still love Buffy and I would do anything for her.  
It’s a dark night as I walk the streets of LA, patrolling for anything evil. I patrol like this every night. I usually patrol alone so Cordy, Wesley, Gunn, and Fred aren’t in more danger than usual.  
I stop when I sense something familiar to me; a vampire. I stand in a dark alley, as I scan the darkness for the creature. Then I see her, as she emerges from the darkest corner of the alley.  
“Angel,” she says softly, and gives me a small smile. I can tell that it’s forced.  
“Darla,” I say, when I’m instantly in front of her.  
I hear a heartbeat and smell the familiar scent of human. That’s when I know why she has come to me and what’s wrong. She’s human. That means she’s dying from Syphilis.  
I look down at her and she looks up at me.  
“Who did this to you?” I ask her, though I can guess who.  
“Wolfram and Heart,” she answers me. “My Angel,” she adds.  
I catch her from hitting the ground when she blacks out, hand between her shoulder blades, arm holding her up. Then I gently pick her up in my arms, carrying her as I walk out of the alley, my destination being Angel Investigations where I both live and work at.  
Cordy calls my room downstairs my dungeon, since I stay there until I have to “help the helpless,” as Cordy made the motto be.  
When I walk inside, the lights are off, which means I’m alone until tomorrow morning when they return to work.  
Once I step out of the elevator and into my room, I go over and lay her gently down on my made bed. No matter how much I despise her, she’s human now. I have to help her like I would for any human. It’s what I do. I’m responsible for her, whether I like it or not. I know what I must do.  
I look down at her, before I leave the room to go upstairs to call Cordy.  
The phone rings a couple times, before she answers.  
“Hello?”  
“It’s me. I wouldn’t be calling so late if it wasn’t important. It’s about Darla. Wolfram and Heart made her human. Now she’s dying of Syphilis. I would’ve told you tomorrow, but I thought if I waited you wouldn’t have been very happy with me,” I tell her.  
“You’re right. I wouldn’t be. Thank your for letting me know. What’s your plan?”  
“I’m going to have a talk with Wolfram and Heart.”  
“Yeah; talk. Tell me how it went tomorrow. I’ll tell the others in the morning.”  
“Thanks, Cordy.”  
I hang up and then write a message on a sticky note on  
Cordy’s front desk just in case. Then I grab a couple stakes and my sword from the glass weapon cabinet, before I leave to deal with the enemy.  
Once inside the boss’s office, I close the door behind myself.  
He stands up from his desk and goes to stand in front of it. He acts like he’s addressing an everyday person.  
“Angel. You’re here which means you got the message.”  
I’m standing in the middle of the room, as I reply to him, saying,  
“What message? Darla?”  
“Yes and no. We used her as a message to you. We can do anything get away with it. Stop this and we’ll leave you alone.”  
“No,” I say, knowing he means for me to stop helping people and looking for a way to bring Wolfram and Heart down.  
“Very well then. You had your chance.”  
Suddenly, I’m outnumbered. Seven of his men appear around me with loaded crossbows aimed at me. I know that I have a fifty fify chance. It could go either way for me. If they don’t kill me and I escape, I could live or I could die. If I die, I’m going down with a big hang.  
In the next moment, the room is filled with fighting and flying arrows. I dodge as many as I can but I get hit by some. Then I jump out of the big window of the twelve story building. I land on my side on the ground in pain, but I don’t stop until I’m in the sewer tunnels. Then everything goes black.  
When I wake up, I’m at the Hyperion hotel where we all work at. The arrows are gone and my wounds have been tended to. I’m lying on the only couch we have.  
I slowly sit up and wince, when my body protests against the movement.  
I have to help Darla, so I slowly get to my feet. I don’t see anyone but I hear Fred upstairs drawing in her room. Wes is in his room and Gunn isn’t here, so I guess he’s hanging out with his friends he calls his “boys.” They’re as much a family to him as we are. I hear Cordy and Darla downstairs. Darla’s awake.  
I go downstairs and enter my room.  
They look at me as I approach.  
“I gave her the cure, since you were out,” Cordy tells me.  
So Cordy cured her. That means she’s not dying anymore, which I’m glad for.  
“How are you doing?” I ask my sire.  
“Thanks. You saved me,” she thanks us both, before she gives me a friendly smile.


	50. The First Evil (Spike's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in S5 after "Not Fade Away." The First Evil is back and coming to LA now. Can they defeat its minions, or will they perish? Read to find out what happens.

It's a dark night, as I walk through LA, California. My name is Spike, formerly known as William the Bloody. I was sired in London by a vampiress named Cecily, whom is now a Vengeance Demon named Halfrek. My first vampiress soul mate was Drusilla. My last one was Harmony Kendall. And then the Sunnydale Slayer, Buffy Anne Summers, and I fell madly in love. And now I'm a part of Angel Investigations. I'm not like Peaches (Angel), but I have a non-cursed soul and I help the hopeless. There isn't many of us left, though. It's just Faith, Peaches, Harmony, and I. All the others died in the battle with the Circle of the Blackthorn, in a coma, or from demon possession. I wouldn't say it out loud, but I bloody hell miss them. I'm about ready to pass an alley, when I smell her scent. So I walk into the alley, not sure why I would smell her. She died in a coma when I was still in Sunnydale shagging with the slayer.  
When I walk into the alley, I see her on her back.  
I kneel down beside her.  
"Princess?" I call to her.  
She groans and then slowly comes to.  
She looks up at me.  
"Out of everyone, I never would have guessed you'd be the one to find me like this," she says to me.  
"Why are you here, luv?" I ask her.  
"I'm supposed to help with whatever is coming," she informs me.  
She sits up and then starts to her feet, and as she does, I help her as I get to mine.  
"Peaches?" I ask.  
She looks at me.  
"Yeah; Angel."  
We walk out of the alley on our way to the Hyperion hotel, side by side.  
Half an hour later, I stand by Harm's desk, as she tells everyone why the bloody hell she's alive.  
"Something is coming," she informs us.  
"What?" Peaches asks.  
"The First Evil will be coming back; This time to LA. That means we'll need back up."  
She gives Peaches and I a knowing look, before looking at Faith.  
"So, what's the plan, C?" Faith asks her.  
"Sunnydale. Ready to drop in on some old friends and family?"  
I instantly know what she means.  
Bloody hell, I think, predicting some rivalry between us and the Scoobies.  
She looks at Peaches and I.  
"You two stay here. Try NOT to kill each other. Harm, Faith, and I are going to visit our home."  
A few minutes later, we watch as they leave to go to Sunny Hell.  
A few hours later, they walk in with Buffy, Cordelia's ex, Red (Willow), Andrew, Halfrek, and Lilah. Her ex, Xander, is different in looks, though. He has one eye left. Anya is missing from the group, which means something must've happened to her.  
We're silent until Peaches steps forward and so does Buffy.  
"Buffy, you made it," he greets.  
"Angel," she greets back.  
"Okay, you two; back to the present," Cordelia says to them.  
"We need to be ready."  
"We're ready," Buffy tells her.  
Buffy looks at me.  
"Spike, you're alive," she says.  
"I am, luv," I reply.  
A day later, the battle comes. This time, The First Evil's minions are demons and vampires. So, for once in our lives, the Scoobies and the rest of us all work together to battle against these creatures, and to save the day. And by night fall, we defeat them and win.  
Later that night, we go back to the Hyperion and say our good-byes. Xander and Cordelia depart to travel together and catch up with one another. They need a break. They've been through hell and back.  
After Peaches goes downstairs to where he lives and everyone else goes home, I go for a walk. So we all live as happily ever after as we can.


	51. Her Story (Cordelia's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the story of Cordelia Leanne Chase; from popularity and rich to poor and a Scooby; from love to heartbreak to loss and hardship; and from human to dying. I hope you enjoy it and cherish her memory.

They say that life sucks and then you die, and to live life to the fullest while you still can. I did that, but my carefree happiness was cut short when I found out what really exists. My life should’ve went on way in the future, but it was cut short during my fourth year after high school. My name is Cordelia Leanne Chase and this is my story.  
I grew up in Sunnydale, California all my life with Willow Rosenburg, Xander Lavelle Harris, and Harmony Kendall. Willow and Xander were always the geeks, while Harmony and I were always rich and popular.  
In Sunnydale High in freshman year, Buffy Anne Summers came to town. By this time I was cheer captain, popular, Queen Bitch, best friends to Harmony, and leader of the Cordettes. Buffy could have been a Cordette since she came from LA, but she started to associate with Willow and Xander. Those three became friends and called themselves the Scoobies.  
In sophomore and junior year, a lot happened. Xander and I fell madly in love, I found out what really exists, I found out that Buffy is the Vampire Slayer, Buffy died and Xander brought her back with CPR, Angel whom is a vampire with a cursed soul lost his soul, Xander and I broke up a second time, Spike a vampire captured Willow and Xander, Willow and Oz fell in love, we found out that Oz is a werewolf as well as a guitarist in a band, Angelus killed one of the teachers Jenny, I found out that Giles was a Watcher as well as the school librarian, Kendra was summoned as the next Slayer, Drusilla an insane vampire killed Kendra, Faith was summoned as the next Slayer, Oz left town, I left the Cordettes, I lost everything, and some new big bads came to town but were defeated.  
In senior year, Faith went evil and Angel almost died from a poison arrow right before graduation. After that, the school was blown up on graduation day. After graduation and after Angel left town after he broke up with Buffy, I left town and ended up in LA.  
A year later, I met up with Angel and he later saved my life from vampires. I also befriended a guy I later found was half Bracken Demon and half human name Doyle. He had painful visions of what was going to happen. He liked to drink Scotch to get rid of the pain.  
A year later, Doyle died saving the world and Wesley-Wyndam Price arrived. So did the visions which made me a Seer. In the same year, we met Charles Gunn whom we called Gunn.  
In the following year I was saved by Angel, Gunn, and a good demon named Lorne, when I was sucked into a portal into a dimension called Pylea. During my rescue, we rescued Winifred whom we called Fred. Then we had a crew to help us with Angel Investigations. It was how we helped people.  
The next year came the sad news. Willow came to us and told us that Buffy was dead. Then she went back to Sunnydale. But later on, she called and said that Buffy was alive. Then Harm, now a vampire, came to me.  
A year later, Darla became pregnant with Angel’s human son named Connor. Darla was Angel’s Sire, by the way. She killed herself with my stake in an alley, so it was up to us to care for him.  
Later on, Connor turned out alright and we had some trouble with Wolfram and Heart, our worst nightmare. Lilah whom worked for them helped us, though.  
In 2006, my visions got worse and I heard that Willow and Oz broke up and Will fell in love with Tara. She also found that she was a good witch and I was happy for her.  
In 2007, I was in a coma for six months before I died.  
In 2008, I watched the battle against The First Evil happen in Sunnydale. By this time, Buffy and Spike were together and Spike had a soul. In the last battle, Anya whom was a former Vengeance demon died. She and Xander had been in love, but exes. All I could wish was that Anya was happy and with her best Vengeance demon friend Halfrek. The only survivors were Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, Andrew, and Faith. Faith was good by now and Tara had been killed a year before from being shot.  
In the same year, I saw Harmony become a real member of Angel Investigations. Later on that same year, there came the battle of the Circle of the Black Thorn. The only survivors were Angel, Faith, Gunn, Harmony, and Spike whom had been brought back from the power of a special ring. So there you have it. My life and some of the others ended in tragedy. I hope you’ll always remember me, and pass down my memory of others.


	52. His Story: Spike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title says it all.

There once was a vampire. He killed a lot of people. He only tortured Slayers. Back then, his name was William the Bloody. Cecily turned him. After Angelus turned a girl, he fell in love. Nobody knows what her name was as a mortal, but her vampire name was Drusilla (Dru). He fell in love with Dru, but Angelus loved her too, even though he already had Darla as his soul mate So William the Bloody and Angelus fought over her for centuries.  
Several years past and his name was shortened to Spike, because he would kill and torture Slayers with rail spikes from railroad tracks.  
After he and Dru left their creators, they brought chaos to Sunnydale. That's when they found out that Buffy was the Slayer; that Sunnydale had its own Slayer. They tried several times to kill and/or torture her, but never succeeded.  
Several years later, after Angel and Cordelia left town, as well did Dru, he and Buffy fell in love.  
Later, he joined Angel and his crew in L.A, knowing that Buffy thought he died in the fire that happened in Sunnydale. And that's his story.


	53. The Cordelia Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Cordy had her own talk show? Read to find out.

Cordelia smiled at the camera with her number one smile.   
"Welcome to our first episode of my talk show. We'll be discussing the characters on the show, and how they feel. My name is Cordelia Chase. Our first guest is Xander Harris."   
She turned to look at him, whom was sitting by her on the red couch.   
"Xander, how did it feel to be in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in season one?" she asked her ex.   
"Well, Cor, it was pretty cool to be a part of the Scooby gang. It's still fun, too. But when it came to the Cordettes, I didn't like it too much."  
"How did it feel to be in a relationship with me in season two, when we first fell in love?"  
"it was great, Cordy. I loved it. All those gropy kisses and broom closets. Even the fights."  
"I liked it too, Xander."  
"And I loved the name calling. You're so cute when you're mad."   
"I'll take that as a compliment," she answered. "So, Xander, how does it feel to still be with Anya?"  
"It's almost like still being with you, but a little different. You know Anya. She was a vengeance demon for two thousand years. She's not used to being human. I mean, she doesn't have any powers, or even understand human feelings."  
"Does she remind you of me? Is that what you're saying?"  
"in a way, yes."  
"Can you elaborate?"  
"Well, our fights are like you and I always had. Full of insults and mostly put downs. But she hasn't left me yet. I think I make her understand things better, better than the others do."  
"What does it feel like, knowing you and Anya are the only ones that aren't going to College, and probably never will?"  
"I don't mind. I have a well-paying job, that allows me to still be able to help with the 'good fight.' "  
"Thanks for coming, Xan. That'll be all for now."  
"You're welcome, Cor."   
They smiled at the camera.

 

The former Seer looked at the camera and smiled.   
"Thanks for joining us for our second episode folks. This episode will be based on our favorite Vengeance Demon, whom turned human just after The Wish. She turned to where she was sitting beside her.   
“So, Anya, how did it feel being a Vengeance Demon for, what, 2,000 years, and then getting your powers taken away in The Wish, when Giles broke your amulet, which made you human?"  
"Well, being a Vengeance Demon was everything to me. It still is. It's hard to think or have feelings like a human does, and to understand them. I was a Vengeance Demon for 2,000 years, giving wishes to scornful women. But you already know that, of course. When I lost my powers, I didn't know what to do. I was lost. Then I had to start a human life, which was confusing as hell. I didn't know how I would survive. Then I met up with Xander after you guys broke up. As you recall, we danced at senior prom. That's when I realized how sweet and kind he was. He didn't even shy or run away when I told him what I used to be. So far, we have come to being fiancées. Sadly, no further. He left me at the altar, because he wasn't ready to, but we still stayed together. I'm happy for that."  
“Have you ever compared yourself to other women he has had?"  
"No. I understand what he feels. He still loves Buffy, but she doesn't want him. She never has. At least, when she's not under a spell. And he never loved Willow the way she will always love him. And I also know, that every time he thinks or talks about you, he is still enchanted by the memories."  
"Do you think that you guys will ever get married or have kids?"  
"I don't know. I want it to be right, if we ever do either. I think he doesn't want to get married. I think he is afraid that I'll leave him someday. But I don't plan on leaving at all. Ya' know? None of us plan for that to happen, but it happens to maybe 50% of us. We just walk out and leave forever."  
"Thanks, Anya."  
She turned to the camera.   
"Stay tuned for our next episode. Bye, folks."

 

Cor looked at the camera.   
"Welcome to our third episode. Today, we will be having our least favorite witch as our guest."   
She turned to the witch next to her.   
"So, Amy, how does it feel to be a witch? You're mom, Caroline, was a witch too, am I right?"  
"Well, yes. She was. She turned out to be evil, though. I'm a good witch. I hardly ever even use my powers. It feels good to be a witch. When you're a witch, you can use your powers to help people."  
“Thank you, Amy. Next, we have my group coming in. Come in, guys."  
Amy left, as they strode gracefully in, heads held high, Aura in front.   
They sat down.   
"So, Aura, now that Harmony and I aren't on the show anymore, how does it feel to be the leader of the Cordettes?"  
"Well, Cordelia, it's great. I understand now why you and Harmony fought so much to keep your reputation as the leader. It's hard work."  
"Now that high school is over, where will you guys be?"  
"We are all going to separate Colleges. Our parents have different plans for us, than what I would like them to have. Cordettes are supposed to stay together as one. We all know that.".   
"Thanks for coming, guys. It'll be grand to see how it all works out."  
"Thanks, Cordelia."  
She turned to the camera.   
"Bye, and see you for another interesting episode."

 

"Hi. Welcome to the fourth episode of our talk show. Today, we have our guests Dawn, Hank, and Joyce Summers."   
She turned to the three guests.   
"Let's start with you, Joyce. How was it to raise two children by yourself, after your husband left?”  
“Well, it wasn't an easy job. I can tell you that much. Dawn was never the hard one to raise. Buffy was harder to raise than Dawn. She was always getting into trouble with school and such. I moved us to Sunnydale to start fresh, but it didn't improve much. Instead, it got worst, but also better at the same time. She had friends and a boyfriend that were more devoted to her than the friends she had in L.A. So, it was quite a task in raising her.   
“Hank, the show never showed what really went on to make you guys get a divorce. What happened?"  
"Well, we always had big fights, but this one was a bad one. After the fight, we realized things were changing, so we did what we had to do. We got a divorce."  
"Thanks Miss Summers and Hank," she said.   
She turned to the last one.   
"Dawn, how is it to be both the Slayer's sister, The Key, and be in High School all in one load?"  
"Well, it's hard. School is hard, but I get help. And if I need any help, Willow is right there. Being the Slayer's sister is pretty neat. It doesn't get any cooler than that. Being the Key is a bit scary, but not as much as it was back in The Gift, when Glory tried to use me to go home."  
"Thanks, Dawn. Bye, folks. That's all for now."

 

"Welcome to our fifth episode, folks. Today, we will be bringing in a few favorites of ours. We have with us today Kendra, Jenny, Parker, and Tara."  
She turned to them.   
"So Kendra, how was it to be the Slayer, and then find out that you're not the only Slayer?"  
"Well, it was pretty cool to be a Slayer. But finding out that Buffy was still the Slayer, and I thought she was a demon, being with Angel and all, I felt guilty."  
"I'm glad everything got worked out. Thank you, Kendra."  
"Parker, how was it to be Buffy's boyfriend after Angel went to hell?"  
"It was cool. I was the Slayer's boyfriend. I just didn't know her past. She apparently had a vampire boyfriend. I didn't even know that the ring I gave her was identical to his."   
"Thank you, Parker."  
"You're welcome."   
"Jenny, how was it to be a teacher at Sunnydale High, and to be Giles' girlfriend for a time?"  
"Well, when I first started teaching, I didn't know much. But then, I progressed. It was grand to be Rupert's girlfriend. We hit it off great."  
"What about being a descendant from the same gypsy clan that cursed Angelus with a soul?"  
"Well, I wasn't proud of being a descendant from them, but I had to live with it. I did pretty good in that field, I think."  
"Thanks, Jenny. Tara, how does it feel to be a powerful good witch, and to be in a serious relationship with Willow?"  
"Well, I-it's great. B-being a w-witch is s-sweet. I-it's cool b-being with W-Willow.”  
"Thanks, Tara. That's all for today's show. Bye."


End file.
